;T;;««n^*«  ifi*ui^rK-?J?S5SEffl'iWr^:S,«*J^K 


LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

STEWART  S.  HOWE 

JOURNALISM  CLASS  OF  1928 


STEWART  S.  HOWE  FOUNDATION 


977.31 
At54s 


THE  STORY  OF 
CHICAGO 

AND 
NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

1534-1910. 


BY 

ELEANOR    ATKINSON. 
EDITED  AND  EXTENDED  BY  THE  EDITORIAL  STAFF  OF  THE  LITTLE  CHRONICLE  COMPANY. 


THE   LITTLE   CHRONICLE   COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS, 

358    DEARBORN    STREET, 

CHICAGO,    ILLINOIS. 


COPYEIGHT,   1903,   BY   THE   LITTLE 
CHRONICLE  PUBLISHING  CO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1909,  BY  THE  LITTLE 
CHRONICLE  COMPANY. 


PEEFACE. 

This  little  book  has  been  prepared  by  several  hands  as  a  text  to  be  used  by  educators  in 
teaching  the  things  of  the  middle  West,  particularly  Chicago.  Mrs.  Atkinson,  the  author 
)f  the  original,  produced  a  charming  story  for  boys  and  girls  and  won  many  friends  in 
their  ranks  as  well  as  among  educators  all  over  the  United  States.  We  have  had  many 
requests  for  the  story  in  book  form.  In  response  to  repeated  requests  we  ran  the  story  a 
second  time  in  our  magazine,  THE  WORLD'S  CHRONICLE.  Now  we  meet  the  further  de- 
mands and  present  it  in  book  form. 

The  editors  of  THE  WORLD'S  CHRONICLE  have  worked  over  most  of  the  details  in  an 
attempt  to  bring  the  story  down  to  date.  The  whirl  of  events  in  the  city  are  such  that 
ink  hardly  dries  on  an  article  on  Chicago  before  the  writing  becomes  out  of  date  because  of 
the  march  of  events. 

We  have  almost  despaired  of  giving  figures  for  anything  in  this  book  because  the  fig- 
ures of  good  things  grow  so  rapidly  over  night.  Yet  we  have  persisted  in  giving  them, 
trusting  to  our  ability  to  revise  as  time  goes  on,  and  believing  the  schools  need  the  figures 
of  this  year  now  and  that  orders  will  come  for  revised  editions  every  year.  We  plan  to  sell 
out  our  editions  fast  enough  to  keep  the  story  ever  new  and  true. 

Special  thanks  are  due  to  The  Chicago  Association  of  Commerce  for  data  supplied,  to  the 
city  archivist,  to  the  librarian  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  and  to  many  individuals 
Avho  have  assisted  us  in  making  the  work  as  accurate  and  interesting  as  it  now  is.  Sugges- 
tions from  educators  using  the  work  will  be  gladly  received  and  thankfully,  for  we  know  such 
suggestions  will  come  in  time  for  an  early  revision.  When  a  city  grows  10,000  a  month 
no  set  of  writers  can  keep  pace  with  all  its  progress.  So  we  invite  the  help  of  our  friends. 

A  statement  of  the  main  fact  regarding  the  present  state  of  the  city  is  being  carried 
forward  from  week  to  week  in  the  Illinois  Teachers'  Edition  of  THE  WORLD'S  CHRONICLE 
with  a  view  to  issuing  a  second  book  or  of  adding  pages  to  the  original  in  its  next  edi- 
tion. The  city  government,  city  hall,  fire  department,  police  department,  health  depart- 
ment, the  county  government,  that  of  the  state,  the  parks,  water  supply,  sewers,  care  oi 
streets,  transportation,  gas  and  electric  lighting,  tunnels,  and  plans  for  improvement  of  the 
city,  are  all  proper  subjects  for  more  complete  treatment  than  could  be  given  in  the  pre.s- 
L'lit  limits  of  the  work. 

The  industries  of  the  city,  such  as  the  Stock  Yards,  the  rolling  mills,  the  grain  trade, 
the  manufacture  of  agricultural  implements,  the  lumber  trade,  machinery,  electrical  sup- 
plies, furniture,  books,  musical  instruments,  boots,  shoes  and  clothing,  are  all  to  be  given 
close  attention  as  a  supplement  to  the  present  work  for  the  use  of  teachers  and  pupils  who 
desire  to  know  them  minutely  and  accurately. 

Chicago  is  a  great  subject.  We  trust  we  have  laid  enough  of  it  before  our  readers  to 
give  them  a  better  appreciation  of  its  greatness. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter  I.  The  Pathfinders 1 

Chapter  II.  The  Gateway  to  the  Mississippi 8 

Chapter  III.  The  French  in  the  Mississippi  Bottom 17 

Chapter  IV.  Under  Three  Flags 24 

Chapter  V.  Fort  Dearborn,  the  Beginning  of  Modern  Chicago 33 

Chapter  VI.  On  the  Frontier 42 

Chapter  VII.  The  Town  of  Chicago 50 

Chapter  VIII.  Development  of  Transportation 58 

Chapter  IX.  Twenty  Years'  Progress 66 

Chapter  X.  Chicago  in  War  Days 73 

Chapter  XI.  Chicago  Before  the  Great  Fire 78 

Chapter  XII.  The  Great  Chicago  Fire 83 

Chapter  XIII.  The  Ruined  City 88 

Chapter  XIV.  The  Phoanix  City 92 

Chapter  XV.  The  World's  Fair 96 

Chapter  XVI.  Labor  and  Right 100 

Chapter  XVII.  The  Government  Supreme 102 

Chapter  XVIII.  Looking  It  Over 104 

Chapter  XIX.  Education,  Philanthropy,  Religion Ill 

Chapter  XX.  Chicago  Becoming  Esthetic : 116 


VI 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO 

AND 
NATIONAL     DEVELOPMENT 


BY  ELEANOR  ATKINSON. 

Edited,  Enlarged  and  Continued  by  the  Editorial  Corps  of 
THE  LITTLE  CHRONICLE  COMPANY. 


Note. — It  Is  suggested  that  all  schools  at  points 
to'iohec1  <n  th'«  work  make  a  study  of  local  history. 
State  and  county  history  have  preserved  much  of 
whirh  far  too  little  Is  brought  into  the  schoolroom. 
There  Is  scarcely  a  town  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Saint 
Anthony's  Palls  and  down  to  New  Orleans  along  the 
waterways  followed  by  the  French,  from  which  a  his- 
torical exc-xrsion  could  not  easily  be  conducted. 

Mrs.  Mary  Hartwell  Catherwood's  "The  Story  of 
Tcnty"  may  be  read  with  much  pleasure  and  profit  as 
it  makes  the  friend  of  La  Salle,  "the  man  with  iron 
band,"  a  living  personage  and  invests  Starved  Rock 
and  other  historic  portions  of  Illinois  with  lively 

CHAPTEE  I. 
The  Pathfinders. 

(1534-1673.) 

The  Strange  Adventures  of 
Jean  Nicolet. — In  the  spring  of 
the  year  1634,  a  number  of  birch- 
bark  canoes  manned  by  Huron 
Indians,  turned  south  after  pass- 
ing the  Strait  of  Michilimackinac 
and  into  the  "Lake  of  the  Illi- 
nois," as  Lake  Michigan  was 
called  by  the  tribes  who  lived  on 
its  shore.  Pausing  only  at  night 
to  camp  on  some  one  of  the 
numerous  green  islands  that  dot 
the  reaches  of  blue  water,  the 
Hurons  pushed  on  to  Green  Bay. 
They  were  on  a  peace  mission 
to  the  "Men  of  the  Western 
Sea,"  whose  country  they  had 
never  seen,  but  whose  warriors 
often  fell  on  the  villages  of  the 
Hurons  which  lay  on  Lake  Nipis- 
sing,  six  weeks  distant,  by  canoe 
journey,  to  the  east. 

When  they  reached  Green  Bay  a  crowd  of 
painted  savages  rushed  down  to  the  shore,  bran- 
dishing their  bows  and  arrows  and  ignoring  the 
peace-pipes  which  the  visitors  displayed.  The 
Hurons  were  not  men  to  show  fear.  They  raced 
their  canoes  through  the  surf  and  grounded  them 
high  on  the  beach.  From  the  foremost  boat 
sprang  a  white  man  who  wore  a  magic  robe  of 
green  silk  encrusted  with  a  profusion  of  birds 


images.  Her  "Romance  of  Bollard"  is  the  story  of 
the  heroes  of  the  Long  Sault :  and  her  "White  Island- 
er" is  the  story  of  a  French  girl  among  the  Indians 
on  the  Island  of  Mackinac. 

It  would  be  a  good  idea  for  pupils  to  locate  on  an 
outline  map  of  North  America  the  disposition  of  the 
various  tribes  of  Indians  and  the  posts  and  missions 
established  by  the  French.  It  will  be  found  that  the 
St.  Lawrence  was  the  dividing  line  between  tribes 
friendly  and  tribes  hostile  to  them.  This  will  help  to 
explain  the  struggle  that  was  to  take  place  in  the 
next  century  for  the  possession  of  North  America 
and  the  defeat  of  the  French. 

and  beasts  and  flowers,  in  brilliant  colors.  The 
savages  fell  back  in  amazement,  and  before 
they  could  gather  their  wits  again  the  white 
man  threw  up  first  one  hand  and  then  the  other, 
and  thunder  and  lightning  roared  and  flashed 
from  the  tips  of  his  fingers. 

Who  was  this  white  man  who  first  startled  the 
woods  and  waters  of  Wisconsin  with  a  pistol 
shot?  Where  did  he  come  from?  How  did  he 
reach  Lake  Michigan  only  fourteen  years  after 
the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Eock? 
And  why  was  he  dressed  in  the  robe  of  a  Chinese 
mandarin? 

His  name  was  Jean  Nicolet.  He  had  come 
from  France.  He  wore  a  mandarin  'a  robe 
'because  he  thought  the  "Western  Sea"  might 
wash  the  shore  of  China  or  India,  and  that  such 
a  costume  would  win  the  confidence  and  respect 
of  the  natives. 

But  we  shall  have  to  go  back  a  century,  to 
account  for  Jean  Nicolet,  before  we  can  dis- 
cover what  his  venturesome  voyage  led  to. 

The  Division  of  the  New  World. — Exactly  one 
hundred  years  before,  in  1534,  Jacques  Cartier 
sailed  into  the  St.  Lawrence  river  and  claimed 
for  France  the  country  drained  by  it.  In  1542 
De  Soto  found  a  grave  in  the  Mississippi,  which 
he  explored  from  the  south  as  far  as  the  mouth 
of  the  Arkansas.  In  1565  Spain  established  a 
military  post  at  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  and,  in 
1">84,  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  discovered  and  claimed 
Virginia  for  England. 

Thus  the  fields  of  future  colonization  in  North 
America  were  roughly  blocked  out;  but  the 


THK    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Seventeenth  Century  was  to  open  before  any 
serious  attempts  at  settlements  were  to  be 
made  by  any  European  nation.  Then,  two  years 
after  the  founding  of  Jamestown,  Virginia. 
Samuel  de  Champlain  arrived  at  Quebec. 


LOUIS  JOLIET. 

The  Conqueror,  the  Colonizer  and  the  Adven- 
turer.— From  the  very  first  the  English,  French 
and  Spanish  explorers  differed  in  all  their  aims 
and  methods.  The  Spaniards  were  conquerors. 
They  had  but  one  object:  to  enrich  Spain.  The 
English  came  to  found  new  homes.  Their  out- 
posts were  always  in  a  hostile  country,  but  they 
held  and  peopled  every  foot  of  soil  they  gained. 
The  French,  at  first,  came  neither  as  home- 
builders  nor  as  exploiters,  but  as  merchants,  to 
secure  the  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  of  the 
Canadian  forests  to  France. 

It  is  clear,  from  the  geo- 
graphical position  occupied  by 
the  three  colonizing  nations 
of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  that 
the  French  were  destined  to 
be  the  first  to  penetrate  far 
into  the  interior.  The  English 
settlers  had  a  wall  of  moun- 
tains— the  Appalachian  ranges 
— to  bar  their  way;  the  Span- 
iards had  a  limitless  ocean 
front  and  innumerable  tropic 
islands  to  engage  all  their 
powers.  But  the  French,  with 
no  room  to  spread  along  the 
coast,  had  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  chain  of  lakes,  form- 
ing a  matchless  and  inviting 
highway  into  the  wilderness. 

In  New  France,  as  Canada  was  then  called, 
the  trader  and  the  explorer  flourished,  while  the 
ant  tier  was  but  indifferently  developed.  There 
^?a?  no  material  out  of  which  to  make  him.  To 


the  Frenchman  of  that  day  the  toil  of  the 
pioneer  was  distasteful.  He  was  romantic,  and 
gain  appealed  to  him  less  than  the  heroic. 
Today,  in  the  colonial  possession  of  France- 
Algiers,  Madagascar,  French  Congo  and  Ton- 
quin,  the  Frenchman  displays  similar  character- 
istics. He  pushes  far  into  the  interior,  seeking 
adventure  and  empire,  but  he  does  not,  as  a 
rule,  occupy  the  land  except  with  military  forces, 
nor  till  the  soil. 

The  French  who  actually  did  settle  in  Acadia 
and  all  along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Missis- 
sippi were  thrifty  and  domestic  and  their  de- 
scendants today  make  up  a  large  percentage  of 
the  population  of  these  regions.  They  use  the 
French  language  and  retain  as  far  as  practicable 
many  of  the  old  world  customs  to  this  day. 
Americans  who  visit  such  localities  are  struck 
with  the  remarkable  reserve  of  the  American 
French  who  still  prefer  to  transact  business  in 
the  old  language  and  carry  on  the  operations  of 
their  very  productive  farms  as  nearly  in  the 
manner  of  their  fathers  as  possible.  They  pre- 
ferred throwing  up  dykes  to  reclaim  lands  from 
the  tide  or  from  the  streams  to  cutting  down 
forests.  The  spade  was  their  favored  instru- 
ment rather  than  the  ax  when  settlements  were 
laid  out. 

Their  farms  were  usually  narrow  with  one 
.  end  touching  the  water  or  the  highway  so  the 
houses  could  be  close  together.  This  accounts 
for  the  surprising  array  of  fences  so  close 
together  and  running  back  from  the  water 
which  we  see  on  a  trip  down  the  St.  Lawrence 
or  along  the  bayous  of  Louisiana. 

But  the  French  explorer  was  different  from 
the  French  settler.  He  was  a  romancer,  a  hero, 
an  adventurer,  a  soldier  with  his  gaze  fixed  on 
the  distant  hills.  The  whole  French  court  was 
surging  in  miniature  ebb  and  flow  in  his  heaving 


JOLIET    AND    MARQUETTE    STARTING    ON    VOYAGE    TO  THE    MISSISSIPPI. 


breast. 

Here  in  the  New  World  what  the  Frenchman 
won  in  trade  was  spent  lavishly  in  adventure. 
La  Salle  threw  away  his  personal  inheritance, 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


his,  rrant  of  the  seigniory  on  Montreal  Island, 
ana  all  ne  could  beg  from  his  relations  and 
..luin  the  crown,  to  win  an  empire  for  France, 
lie  did  only,  but  in  a  larger  way,  what  every 
man  in  New  France,  of  as  good  birth  and  for- 
tune, dreamed  of  doing.  He  was  an  excellent 
representative  'of  the  spirit  of  New  France.  In 
moral  daring  and  self-sacrifice  he  was  matched 
by  the  early  missionaries. 

The  French  had  many  characteristics  which 
fitted  them  to  take  the  highest  advantage  of 
thei»  position  in  the  New  World.  They  had 
urbanity  and  adaptability.  The  savage  tribes 
were  picturesque  rather  than  disgusting  to  them. 
The  hunters,  fishers,  sailors,  traders,  adventurers 


PERE    MARyUETTE. 

From  an  oil  painting  discovered  on  a  cart  or 
rubbish  in  Montreal,  1897;  artist,  R.  Roos,  1669; 
and  labelled,  "Marquette  de  la  Confrerie  d>3 
Jesus. ' ' 

who  came  to  Quebec  with  Champlain,  felt  lor 
the  Indian  neither  the  Spaniard  's  scorn  nor  the 
Englishman's  moral  and  social  superiority.  Th3 
brave  was  mon  frere  sauvage  (my  wild  brother). 
Without  any  sense  of  degradation  they  went  at 
once  into  the  forest,  lived  with  the  natives, 
adopted  their  dress,  habits,  and  speech,  and  toox 
squaws  for  wives. 

It  was  Champlain,  the  "Father  of  New 
France,"  as  he  is  called  by  Parkman,  who 
shaped  the  destiny  of  France  in  America.  It  is 
said  by  historians  that  he  came  to  Quebec  with 
no  other  thought  than  to  develop  the  fur  trade 
in  Canada;  but,  as  he  stood  on  the  forest- 
crowned  bluff,  afterwards  known  as  the  Height? 
of  Abraham,  three  hundred  miles  from  the 
ocean,  and  watched  the  broad  flood  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  pour  out  of  the  wooded  wildernes  to 
the  southwest,  he  realized  the  colossal  scale  on 
which  this  unknown  continent  had  been  planned, 
I'.nd  it  fired  his  imagination. 

"Whence     came     this    mighty    stream?"    1-e 


asked  himself.  He  thought  it  must  rise  in  the 
Sou^I\  «u  I  that  across  some  distant  watershed 
he  might  find  the  head  waters  of  De  Soto  's 
' '  Great  river. ' '  Whoever  could  hold  these  two 
rivers,  he  argued,  would  be  masters  of  the  con- 
tinent they  drained,  and  of  the  East  Indian 
trade.  The  vast  extent  of  North  America  and 
of  the  Pacific  ocean  had  not  been  guessed.  The 
object  of  exploration  in  the  New  World  was  still 
the  discovery  of  a  western  route  to  the  Orient. 

In  the  year  after  he  reached  Quebec  Cham- 
plain  made  an  expedition  to  the  south  by  way 
of  what  is  now  the  Richelieu  river.  This  brought 
him  to  the  lake  between  New  York  and  Ver- 
mont which  bears  his  name.  After  .the  dark 
nines  and  spruces  which  give  the  predominating 
force  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  Champlain  was  en- 
chanted by  the  autumnal  colors  of  the  woods 
that  clothed  the  Adirondacks. 

How  an  Indian  Skirmish'  Turned  the  Course 
of  History. — He  rode  and  marched  down  Lake 
Champlain  and  its  shore  very  nearly  to  Lake 
George,  and  must  soon  have  come  to  the  Hudson, 
up  which  Henry  Hudson  had,  the  year  before, 
sailed  in  the  Half-Moon.  Somewhere  near  Ti- 
conderoga,  the  French  explorers  and  their  Algon- 
quin guides  met  a  band  of  Iriquois  Indians — 
probably  the  Mohawks.  The  Iroquois  were 
defeated,  but  Champlain  gathered  none  of  the 
fruits  of  victory,  for  the  Algonquins  turned  and 
fled  back  to  Canada. 

The  Iroquois  tribes,  who  occupied  the  region 
south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Lake  Ontario,  in 
the  present  state  of  New  York,  were  the  hered- 
itary foes  of  the  Algonquin  tribes  north  of  the 
river.  The  news  of  this  battle  must  soon  run  to 
Lake  Erie  and  start  the  Five  Nations  on  the 
warpath.  As  the  Iroquois  were  the  bravest, 
brainiest,  and  most  ferocious  of  the  tribes  of 
eastern  North  America,  the  Algonquins  consid- 
ered discretion  the  better  part  of  valor. 

The  French  in  New  France  were  never  to 
forget  or  cease  to  regret  that  small  engagement 
which  seemed  so  trivial  at  the  time.  Within 
the  next  hundred  years  the  Five  or  Six  Nations, 
as  they  were  known  after  being  joined  by  the 
Tuscaroras  of  the  Carolinas,  were  to  sweep  every 
tribe  from  their  path  to  the  Mississippi.  The 
Dutch  of  New  York  and  afterwards  t'\e  British 
ised  them  to  check  the  exploration  of  the 
branch,  furnishing  them  with  fire-arms  amo"  «up- 
jilies,  in  return  for  skins  and  military  set—ice. 
Had  the  French  allied  themselves  with  the  Cro- 
quois,  instead  of  with  the  Algonquius,  whose 
power  was  waning,  the  history  of  the  American 
continent,  as  we  now  know  it,  must  havo  been 
radically  different. 

Down  the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  Wilderness. — 
The  route  to  the  south  thus  closed  to  French 
explorers,  they  turned  to  the  great  water  Hgh- 
way  to  the  west.  Tn  Hill  Champl-ii"  o;i»r.~'l  a 
trading  post  nt  Montreal.  To  this  point  the 
H-.iron  Indians — an  outcast  band  of  Tr^o-io'0  who 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


had  fled  from  the  south  and  sought  protection 
and  alliance  with  the  Algonquins — brought  skins 
and  specimens  of  copper  ores  from  the  upper 
lakes  in  their  canoes  over  the  Ottawa  river. 
Every  Huron  village  on  the  Ottawa  and  Lake 
Nipissing  soon  had  its  group  of  young  French- 
men, who  were  very  much  at  home  with  their 
red  brothers  of  the  forest.  To  the  Hurons'  Iro- 
quois  hatred  was  dealt  out  in  double  measure. 
These  they  drove,  at  last,  to  the  edge  of  the 
Sioux  country  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior. 

It  was  in  this  way  that  Jean 
Nicolet  came  to  live  among  the 
Hurons  on  Lake  Nipissing.  The 
Hurons  were  enjoying  a  respite 
of  persecution  from  the  Iro- 
quois,  at  this  period,  but  they 
had  an  annoying  foe  in  a  tribe 
which  they  called  the  "Men  of 
the  Western  Sea."  These  were 
the  Winnebagoes  of  Green  Bay. 
Famous  canoeists  they  must 
have  been,  for  they  thought  lit- 
tle of  taking  a  six  weeks'  voy- 
age eastward,  over  wild  and  de- 
vious waters,  just  to  stir  up  the 
Hurons. 

It  was  in  1634  that  Nicolet 
conceived  the  idea  of  heading  a 
peace  mission  to  these  ' '  Men 
of  the  Western  Sea."  The 
priest  of  Montreal  blessed  him  NICOLET  AMONG 
and  absolved  him  of  his  sins,  and  Father  Cham- 
plain,  who  was  to  die  before  Nicolet  returned, 
gave  him  the  mandarin's  robe,  for  it  might  be 
this  young  explorer's  fortune  to  arrive  on  the 
shore  of  China  or  India.  In  that  case  such  a 
robe  would  inspire  respect.  As  a  protection 
Nicolet  armed  himself  with  a  pair  of  the  duel- 
ling pistols  that  were  used  so  skillfully  by  all 
adventurous  Frenchmen  in  the  age  of  Louis  le 
Grand. 

So  the  first  French  explorer  to  reach  Lake 
Michigan  set  his  face  westward  and  disappeared 
in  the  wilderness  of  woods  and  waters. 

It  would  now  be  but  a  few  days'  journey  by 
steamer,  from  Lake  Nipissing,  off  Georgian  Bay, 
Lake  Huron,  to  Green  Bay,  Wis.  Pleasant  towns 
and  lumber  camps  are  to  be  seen  on  the  shores,, 
and  there  are  glimpses  of  broad  pasture  lands 
and  golden  wheat  fields  through  the  clearings. 
The  Canadian  Pacific  railway  runs  a  branch 
line  along  the  north  channel  of  Lake  Huron  to 
the  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 

To  Nicolet  this  journey  was  a  six  weeks'  voy- 
age by  canoe  through  waters  which,  in  all  prob- 
ability, had  never  before  teen  traversed  by  a 
white  man.  Spruce  and  pine  forests  shut  "in 
the  tortuous  course  of  the  French  river  like 
prison  walls,  and  marched  with  the  shore  of  the 
North  Channel  in  dark  rtuika.  Everywhere  Xico 
let  "topped — at  the  nation  of  the  Beavers  on 
L?k"  FK  v.'\  fi*,  t?ia  Ojibwa  village  at  the  Falls, 


at  the  retreats  of  the  Ottawas  on  the  Manitou- 
lins  and  of  the  Pottawatomies  on  the  islands 
outside  of  Green  Bay — he  was  warned  of  ven- 
turing among  the  savage  Winnebagoes.  Along 
his  journey  he  had  passed  through  only  Algon- 
quin tribes,  and  these  allies  of  the  French  were 
concerned  for  his  safety. 

His  wonderful  robe  clothed  him  with  mystery, 
however,  and  his  pistols  invested  him  with  su- 
perhuman power.  At  Green  Bay  were  soon  col- 


THE  WINNEBAGOES.       Drawn  by  Mr.  Bridgeman 


lected  5,000  red  men  and  their  families,  made 
up  of  Winnebagoes,  Menominees,  Foxes,  Sacs 
and  Mascoutins.  Nicolet  seems  to  have  made 
friends  with  them  all,  and  to  have  lived  among 
them  on  the  most  amicable  terms  for  two  years. 

They  told  him,  at  last,  of  the  Great  river  to 
the  west,  that  flowed  southward  through  a  land 
of  burning  heat.  No  man  knew  where  it  reached 
the  sea.  Nicolet  very  nearly  had  the  honor  of 
discovering  the  Mississippi  from  the  north.  He 
went  down  Fox  river,  made  the  portage  across 
the  prairie  to  the  Wisconsin  and  reached  a  point 
within  fifty  miles  of  where  Prairie  du  Chien 
stands  today.  For  what  reason  is  not  known, 
he  turned  back.  It  was  nearly  forty  years  be- 
fore Joliet  and  Marquette  followed  in  the  foot- 
steps of  this  explorer,  who  reported  in  Montreal 
that  he  had  been  near  the  Great  river  "whence, 
in  three  days,  one  could  journey  to  the  South 
sea." 

Some  one  must  soon  have  discovered  the  Mis- 
sissippi but  for  the  fact  that  the  Iroquois  In- 
dians entered  upon  a  thirty  years'  war  against 
the  Hurons,  the  Algonquin  tribes  and  their  French 
allies.  They  swarmed  over  Lake  Ontario  and 
the  St.  Lawrence,  drove  the  tribes  far  to  the 
north  and  west,  and  shut  the  French  up  in  their 
three-  fortified  settlements — Quebec,  Montreal 
and  Three  Rivers.  For  at  least  a  quarter  of  a 
century  the  French  scarcely  dared  venture  out- 
side their  fortifications.  Canada  writhed  for 


THE    STOKV    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


twenty  years,  with  little  respite,  under  the 
scourge  of  Iroquois  war. 

In  1660,  when  there  were  but  3,000  white  peo- 
ple in  all  New  France,  the  three  towns  were  in 
danger  of  extermination.  Eight  hundred  Iro- 
quois were  encamped  below  Montreal  and  400 
more  on  the  Ottawa.  This  united  force  was  to 
lay  siege  to  one  stronghold  after  the  other,  until 
all  should  be  reduced  by  starvation,  when  the 
forts  were  to  bo  destroyed  by  flames. 

What  Twenty-one  Heroes  Did. — The  comman- 
dant in  Montreal,  at  the  time,  was  one  Adam 
Daulac,  the  Sieur  des  Ormeaus,  better  known  as 
"Dollard. "  He  conceived  the  idea  of  leading 
a  band  of  volunteers  against  the  savage  enemy. 
Sixteen  others  joined  him  in  the  march  up  the 
Ottawa.  Before  starting  on  that  heroic  expe- 
dition they  made  their  wills,  confessed  their  sins 
and  received  the  last  sacraments  of  the  church. 
They  never  expected  to  come  back,  for  they  had 
sworn  neither  to  give  nor  to  ask  quarter.  They 
hoped  only  to  give  the  Iroquois  such  an  example 
of  the  bravery  and  the  fighting  qualities  of 
white  men  that  should  save  the  forts  from  at- 
tack. 

This  little  band  reached  the  rapids  of  the  Ot- 
tawa (called  the  Long  Sault  or  Soo)  in  May. 
There  they  found  a  rough  Iroquois  fort  built 
of  stakes  and  falling  to  ruin.  This  they  repaired, 
built  an  inner  wall,  and  filled  in  the  space  with 
earth,  leaving  loop  holes  for  firing.  They  had 
only  pounded  corn  to  eat  and  no  water,  although 
the  sparkling  river  laved  the  wall  of  their  de- 
fense. An  Algonquin  and  four  Hurons  joined 
them. 

Day  after  day  this  heroic  band  held  the  little 
fort  in  the  woods  against  700  Iroquois  who 
camped  around  it,  and  they  picked  off  scores  of 
Indians  through  the  loop  holes.  It  ended  in  the 
only  way  it  could  end — the  extermination  of 
the  defenders.  The  sacrifice  saved  the  colony 
of  New  France.  The  Iroquois  had  had  fighting 
enough.  They  argued  that  if  seventeen  French- 
men and  four  Indians,  behind  a  picket  fence, 
could  hold  off  700  Iroquois  so  long  and  each 
demand  a  score  of  lives  for  his  own,  what  might 
they  not  expect  from  hundreds  of  men  fighting 
from  behind  stone  walls? 

This  story  is  told  here  to  illustrate  what  sort 
of  men  were  to  reach  and  explore  the  Mississippi 
and  the  upper  lake  region  and  to  give  their 
names  suitable  prominence  in  the  history  of  Chi- 
cago. 

The  Altars  in  the  Wilderness.  Daring  and  De- 
votion of  the  Missionaries. — The  missionary 
priests  were  no  less  daring  and  devoted.  A 
number  of  Jesuits  came  out  to  New  France  as 
early  as  1626  and  scattered  through  the  woods 
around  the  river  and  the  lower  lakes.  There- 
after, priests  of  this  order  were  with  every  har- 
ried band  of  Hurons  and  Algonqnins.  sleeping 
on  the  ground,  listening  for  the  midnight  alarm, 
living  on  roots  and  berries  and  the  results  of 


the  chase;  rearing  their  altars  in  the  forests, 
comforting  dying  warriors,  taking  squaws  and 
children  to  their  scattered  kindred  and  them- 
selves dying  strange  obscure  deaths  in  unhal- 
lowed lands. 

It  is  not  a  matter  for  wonder,  therefore,  to 
find  Pere  Rene  Menard  on  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Superior  in  1661,  with  a  band  of  fugitive 
Hurons.  He  led  his  savage  flock,  who  needed 
all  the  consolation  his  religion  could  give  them, 
to  Chequamegon  Bay,  that  beautiful  sheet  of 
water  on  which  Ashland,  Washburn  and  Bayfield, 
Wis.,  now  stand.  A  long,  lovely,  green-rimmed 
arm  of  the  ' '  big  sea  water ' '  fringed,  on  the 
outer  edge,  by  the  Apostle  islands,  twenty-seven 
in  number,  it  is  today  a  popular  summer  resort. 

But  gloomy  enough  it  looked  to  that  starving 
band  of  Hurons,  in  the  beginning  of  the  winter 
of  1661.  The  water  was  dark  and  stormy,  the 
islands  masses  of  funereal  evergreens.  Father 
Menard  set  up  his  altar  near  the  city  of  Ash- 
land. A  stockade  cut  off  the  point,  and  canoes 
for  escape  were  moored  on  the  shore.  In  the 
spring  a  better  fort  was  erected  on  Oak  Point. 
Pere  Menard  perished  in  the  woods,  in  some  ob- 
scure way,  like  so  many  of  the  heroic  brothers 
of  his  order. 

There  was  soon  another  to  take  his  place,  for 
Father  Claude  Allouez  arrived  in  1665,  and  built 
the  mission  of  La  Pointe  du  St.  Esprit  (the 
point  of  the  Holy  Ghost)  between  the  sites  of 
Ashland  and  Washburn  on  the  shore  of  the  bay. 
The  original  La  Pointe  mission  was  thus  on  the 
mainland,  and  not  on  Madeleine  island,  where 
there  is  an  Indian  mission  some  seventy  years 
old. 

This  mission  at  La  Pointe  was  among  the  Ot- 
tawas,  Ojibwas  and  Hurons.  But  Pottawatomies, 
Miamis,  Kickapoos,  Sacs,  Foxes,  Sioux  and  Illi- 
nois Indians  all  visited  it,  and  marveled  at  the 
altar  fittings,  the  missionary 's  vestments  and 
the  tall  wax  candles  and  incense  that  gave  such 
splendor  and  mystery  to  the  bark  chapel.  Father 
Allouez  remained  at  La  Pointe  four  years.  His 
mission  is  notable  only  because  of  the  stories 
he  brought  back  when  he  returned  to  Montreal, 
in  1667,  on  a  visit.  He  reported  that,  beyond 
the  country  of  the  Sioux,  lay  the  end  of  the 
world,  and  that  the  Great  river,  which  was  called 
the  Messippi  by  the  Indians,  fell  into  the  sea 
by  Virginia. 

This  news  was  sent  to  France.  It  was  the 
age  of  Louis  XIV,  and  Count  Frontenac  was  rul- 
ing at  Montreal  as  royally  as  was  the  grand 
Monarque  at  Versailles.  The  word  went  forth 
that  New  France  must  keep  pace  with  the  glory 
of  Old  France.  In  1669  Father  Allouez  was  di- 
rected to  go  to  Green  Bay  to  establish  the  mis- 
sion of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  near  the  mouth  of 
Fox  river,  while  Father  James  Marqtiette,  a 
priest  known  for  his  youth,  his  beauty  of  char- 
;ictcr  :ind  his  xi'sil.  \v;is  sent  from  Sjmlt  Ste. 
M.-iric.  where  lie  had  helped  Father  Bnl.lon  estab- 
lish a  mission,  to  La  Pointe. 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


The  French  Claim. — There  were  thus  three  mis- 
sions on  the  upper  lakes  when,  in  the  year  1671, 
occurred  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  stately 
ceremony  of  proclamation  of  French  sovereignty 
over  the  Great  Lakes.  This  ceremony  took  place 
in  the  presence  of  several  Algonquin  tribes  who, 
harried  from  the  east  by  the  Iroquois  and  from 
the  west  by  the  Sioux,  were  only  too  glad  of 
this  promise  of  French  protection. 

The  mission  at  La  Pointe  had  to  be  abandoned. 
The  Hurons  and  Ottawas,  not  content  with  their 
hard-earned  peace,  provoked  the  Sioux  to  war. 
Father  Marquettc  led  his  unhappy  Hurons  back 
to  Michilimackinac,  where  he  founded  the  mis- 
sion of  St.  Ignace,  while  the  Ottawas  took  refuge 
on  the  Mauitoulius  near  the  strait.  How  many 
starving  bands  of  AlgonquiQB  were  then  living 
precariously  on  the  wooded  islands  and  on  the 
defensible  points  of  land  amid  the  wild  waters 
of  the  upper  lakes! 

The  Lake  Superior  region  was  closed  to  the 
French  by  the  Sioux.  The  mission  of  La  Pointe 
was  not  to  be  re-established  for  170  years.  Exit 
was  sought  to  the  south  over  the  Lake  of.  the 
Illinois.  This  was  helped  forward  by  the  fact 
that  the  tribes  of  Wisconsin  came  peacefully 
under  the  dominion  of  France.  The  moment  had 
come — now  for  the  men! 

Where  was  Father  Marquette's  mission  of  St. 
Ignace  at  Michilimackinac?  The  name  belongs 
to  an  island,  a  strait  and,  later,  to  a  town  on  a 
point  extending  into  the  strait  from  the  south 
shore.  But  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  strait, 
in  upper  Michigan,  was  also  an  early  mission 
known  as  St.  Iguace.  Indeed,  the  northern  point 
is  known  today  as  Point  St.  Ignace.  This  has 
brought  about  confusion.  Both  sides  of  the  strait 
claim  the  honor  of  Marquette's  mission. 

There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  on  the  south  shore,  at  what 
was  afterwards  known  as  Old  Mackinac,  that 
Father  Marquctte  established  his  mission  of  St. 
Ignace.  It  was  there  that  all  voyageurs  and  ex- 
plorers stopped  in  their  journeys  over  the  upper 
lakes,  for  there  was  anchorage  for  a  fleet  in 
Mackinac  Bay.  The  place  seems  thus  early  to 
have  been  known  to  the  French,  for  Marquctte 
had  no  more  than  set  up  his  cross,  built  a  bark 
chapel  and  gathered  his  Ottawas  and  Hurons 
about  him  in  a  village  on  the  sandy  beach  below 
the  cliffs,  when  a  trader  and  explorer  sought  shel- 
ter in  the  bay. 

It  was  Louis  Joliet,  who  was  going  back  to 
Montreal  with  copper  ores  which  he  had  taken 
from  Indian  mines  at  the  head  of  Lake  Su- 
perior, and  who  paused  for  a  blessing  at  Father 
Marquette's  mission.  There,  at  Old  Mackinac, 
as  they  sat  around  the  council  fire  and  Joliet 
smoked  a  peace-pipe  with  the  chiefs,  the  frail 
young  priest  with  the  luminous  eyes  told  the 
trader  that,  when  at  La  Pointe,  a  band  of 
strange  Indians,  who  called  themselves  Illini, 
ia<3  come  from  the  south,  and  begged  him  to 


return  with  them  to  their  village  by  the  "Mes- 
sippi"  which  lay  thirty  days'  march  djstant. 

He  had  promised  to  go,  but  he  must  await 
the  permission  of  his  superiors  in  Montreal.  His 
heart  was  filled  with  longing  to  carry  the  cross 
to  the  tribes  along  the  Great  river.  He  told 
his  story  and  the  desire  of  his  heart  to  Louis 
Joliet.  With  a  last  wave  of  the  hand  and  a 
benediction  the  two  parted,  never,  perhaps,  ex- 
pecting to  meet  again.  One  was  going  through 
a  hostile  country,  where  many  adventurers  per- 
rished  every  year,  to  Montreal,  and  the  other 
was  wearing  out  a  fragile  body  by  labor  and 
fasting  in  a  land  beset  with  danger  and  hard- 
ships. 

Not  a  word  reached  across  those  hundreds  of 
leagues  of  wilderness,  on  which  to  feed  hope. 
But  in  just  two  years  Louis  Joliet  returned  to 
Michilimackinac  with  the  joyful  news  that  he 
had  been  commissioned  to  find  the  Great  river 
and  that  Pere  Marquette  was  to  go  with  him 
as  a  missionary. 

To  that  saintly  soul  on  his  forest  and  wave- 
girt  rocky  point,  this  news  was  like  an  answer 
to  two  years'  ceaseless  prayers  to  the  Virgin. 

The  Search  for  the  Great  River. — The  French 
explorer  and  missionary  who  were  to  re-discover 


Marquette's  map  of  region  traversed  by  him- 
self and  Joliet  showing  return  through  Chicago. 


the  Mississippi  from  the  north,  set  out  on  their 
voyage  in  May,  1673,  in  two  birch-bark  canoes. 
They  were  accompanied  by  five  Indians.  For 
supplies  they  had  only  some  bags  of  corn  and 
dried  meat.  They  carried  the  weapons  of  the 
hunter  to  obtain  food,  but  for  their  safety  they 
depended  on  the  peace-pipe,  and  on  the  cross 
which  Father  Marquette  lifted  to  heaven  in  an 
appeal  for  help  whenever  danger  threatend. 
They  followed  the  route  Nicolet  had  taken 


THE    STORY   OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


nearly  forty  years  before,  going  by  way  of 
Green  Bay,  Lake  Winnebago,  the  Fox  and  Wis- 
consiu  rivers.  In  just  one  month  their  canoes 
glided  past  the  bluff  where  Prairie  du  Chien 
now  stands,  and  rocked  on  the  blue  waters  of 
the  Mississippi. 

They  had  f.ound  the  Great  river! 

Parkman  has  told  in  his  "Discovery  of  the 
Great  West,"  all  that  is  known  of  that  won- 
derful voyage,  and  of  the  journey  back  by  way 
of  the  Illinois  river.  The  year  was  young  and 
the  landscape  that  unrolled  before  them,  in 
bluff,  prairie  and  tender  woods,  enchanted  them 
so  that  Marquette 's  journal  reads  today  like 
the  setting  of  some  classic  romance. 

On  the  way  down  the  Mississippi  they  stopped 
at  an  Illinois  Indian  village  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  river,  below  the  mouth  of  the  Des  Moines. 
There  the  explorers  were  told  of  a  shorter  route 
back  to  the  Lake  of  the  Illinois  (Lake  Michi- 
gan). They  were  directed  to  go  up  the  Illinois 
river  to  the  portage  to  the  river  now  known 
as  the  Chicago  and  which  was  occupied  by 
tribes  of  the  Illinois  Indians.  This  was  a  branch 
of  the  great  Algonquin  family  and  would  prove 
friendly  to  the  French. 

It  was  thus  that,  in  the  Illinois  Indian  vil- 
lage of  Kaskaskia,  which  stood  where  Utica,  La 
Salle  county,  Illinois,  stands  today,  that  the  ex- 
plorer and  missionary  rested — in  as  fair  a  wil- 
derness as  ever  gladdened  the  eyes  of  white  men. 

With  all  that  civilization  has  done  to  this 
landscape  it  remains  unchanged  in  many  of  its 
aspects  today.  The  plow  has  turned  up  the 
prairie  sod;  the  forests  have  been  cut  from  the 
bluffs,  and  grown  again;  towns  and  railroads 
and  farmsteads  have  been  built,  and  cliffs  blasted 
for  lime  rock  and  sandstone.  But  remove  that 
modern  town,  the  farm  houses,  quarries  and  rail- 
roads, and  people  the  meadow  with  red  men; 
sweep  away  the  iron  bridges  and  let  the  river 
rock  the  fleets  of  bird-like  canoes;  let  smoke 
rise  from  lodges  instead  of  factories  'and  loco- 
motives, and  you  will  have  restored  to  you  the 
very  landscape  on  which  Marquette  and  Joliet 
gazed. 

There  is  the  valley  of  the  Illinois,  yellow  with 
corn  as  of  old,  when  squaws  planted;  the  ver- 
dant line  of  hills,  a  cleft  in  the  bluff  for  the 
Big  Vermilion  to  break  through,  and,  on  the 
south  bank  of  the  river,  an  isolated  cliff  with 
three  precipitous  sides,  that  is  now  known  in  his- 
tory as  La  Salle 's  "Eock  of  St.  Louis,"  and  to 
the  vanishing  tribes  of  the  Illini,  of  a  century 
or  more  later,  as  "Starved  Eock. " 

Through  the  Portage  which  Became  Chicago.— 
When  ready  to  depart,  Joliet  and  Marquette 
were  furnished  guides  to  the  Lake  of  the  Illinois. 


No  record  of  this  passage  through  what  was 
afterward  Chicago  is  now  in  existence,  except 
the  mute  testimony  of  Marquette 's  map.  Joliet 's 
(naps  and  papers  were  lost  by  the  capsizing  of 
his  canoe  in  the  La  Chine  rapids  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  when  he  was  within  sight  of  the  fort 
at  Montreal.  But  that  he  gave  an  account  of 
the  portage  to  La  Salle  there  is  proof  •  which 
will  be  presented  in  the  course  of  this  narrative. 

Joliet  could  scarcely  have  arrived  at  Montreal 
before  Pere  Marquette  was  retracing  his  foot- 
steps. He  had  promised  the  Illinois  Indians 
that  he  would  return  and  found  a  mission  at 
Kaskaskia.  The  Pottawatomie  Indians,  of  the 
islands  and  shore  below  Green  bay,  begged  the 
missionary  to  wait  until  spring,  but  his  health 
was  failing  so  fast  that  he  feared  to  delay. 

It  was  late  in  October  and  the  lake  was  stormy 
when  Marquette  embarked  for  the  return  voyage. 
Two  French  coureurs  du  bois,  named  Pierre  and 
Jacques,  and  a  band  of  Pottawatomies  accom- 
panied him,  and  the  party  was  guided  by  In- 


THE  ROCK  OP  ST.  LOUIS  (STARVED  ROCK). 

On  the  meadow  below  this  cliff  at  Utica,  111., 
was  located  the  great  Illinois  Indian  village  of 
Kaskaskia,  numbering  2,500  at  the  time  of 
Joliet 's  and  Marquette 's  visit. 


dians  from  the  Illinois  village.  There  were  ten 
•anoes  in  all. 

Every  night  this  company  camped  on  shore, 
and  in  some  places  they  were  detained  for  days 
when  storms  raged  on  the  lako.  In  this  way 
Marquette  saw,  and  described  in  his  journal, 
every  stream  between  Green  Bay  and  Chicago. 
It  was  the  14th  of  December  when  the  exhausted 
party  arrived  at  "Portage  river,"  as  the  French 
translated  the  Indian  term  for  our  Chicago  river 
of  today.  It  had  no  distinctive  name,  but  was 
simply  the  outlet  to  the  portage  or  carrying- 
place  between  the  lake  and  the  Illinois. 

What  sort  of  welcome  do  you  think  was  ex- 
tended here  to  this  weary  saint,  who  was  so 
soon  to  die,  with  his  name  linked  forever  to 
the  history  of  this  region  of  marvels? 


The  cities  were  the  centers  of  Greek  and  Roman  civilization  and  in  our  own  time  they  dominate  the 
life,  culture,  and  business  enterprise  of  the  world.  Were  they  to  disappear,  our  whole  life,  even  in  the 
country,  would  necessarily  undergo  a  profound  change  and  tend  to  become  primitive  again  like  that  of  the 
age  of  Charlemagne. — Robinson :  History  of  Western  Europe. 


CHAPTER  II. 
The  Gateway  to  the  Mississippi. 

(1674-1700.) 

Summary.     Of  the  three  colonizing  nations  in 
the  New  World  in  the  Seventeenth  century  the" 
French   alone   were    so    placed    that    they    could 
•'each  the  great  West  at   an   early   period;   the 
hostility      of      the      Iroquois 
compelled    them    to    expand 
in  this  direction  rather  than 
Southward  across   New  York 
and   Ohio.     When   they   had 
got  as  far  as  the  Lake  Su- 
jr-c-nor    region    further    prog- 
ress westward  \vas  cut  off  by 
the      ferocious      Sioux,     and 
they   were   forced    to    return 
to  the  northern  end  of  Lake 
Michigan.      Sailing  south  ou 
the      lake,      they      came      to 
Green     Bay,     proceeded     by 
water  to  the  portage  to  the 
(.Prom  Lincoln      Wisconsin  river,  sailed  down 
Park  Statue.)       this  to  the  Mississippi,  down 
LA  SALLE.         the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth 
"A   man   born   to  Of   the   Arkansas,   and   back 
command. ' '         by  the  way  of  the  Illinois  to 
the  portage  to  the  Chicago  river,  and  so,  through 
what  is  now  Chicago,  into  Lake  Michigan.     To 
this  point  Marquette  returned  alone. 

Marquette's  Winter  in  the  Trader's  Hut. 
The  site  of  Chicago  was  inhospitable  and  dreary 
to  the  last  degree  the  day  Marquette  arrived  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  river  in  December, 
1674.  For  eight  days  high  winds  prevented  the 
canoes  from  rounding  the  sandbar  that  ob- 
structed the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  only  shel- 
ter from  the  bitter  winds  and  from  the  waves 
that  buffeted  the  low  shore  was  among  the 
stunted  trees  and  underbrush  on  the  sand-dunes 
north  of  the  river.  Of  human  habitation  on  the 
lake  shore  there  was  no  sign.  The  place  was 
used  as  a  highway,  and  no  Indian  village  was 
ever  located  on  the  shore  at  this  point. 

For  miles  up  and  down  the  shore,  and  back 
to  the  horizon,  twelve  miles  to  the  west,  where 
a  low  ridge  marked  the  ancient  limits  of  Lake 


Michigan  and  formed  a  part  of  the  long  water- 
shed between  the  Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence 
river  systems,  stretched  one  vast  tract  of  half- 
frozen  marsh.  Through  this  swamp  the  river 
flowed  so  sluggishly  that  the  lake  had  piled  up 
a  long  sandbar  and  forced  the  stream  to  run 
parallel  to  the  shore  for  a  half  mile  before  it 
found  an  outlet.  The  Chicago  river  thus  flowed 
into  Lake  Michigan  not  where  it  does  today 
but  five  blocks  south,  at  the  foot  of  Madison 
street,  two  blocks  north  of  the  spot  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Art  Institute. 

Far  to  the  south,  beyond  a  grove  of  oaks 
which  began  near  Thirty-fifth  street,  Stony 
Island,  a  hillock  of  disintegrated  rock,  and  Blue 
Island,  a  long  mound  of  blue  clay,  both  left  by 
the  glacier  that  had  receded  ages  before,  rose 


ROBERT    CAVELIER.    SIKUR    DE    LA    SALLE. 
(From  the  Margry  Portrait.) 

<;Look  into  his  face  and  you  may  see  why  he 
was  to  become  the  first  great  self-made  man  who 
ever  trod  the  streets  of  Chicago." 


above  the  spongy  flats.  In  their  neighborhood 
an  intricate  network  of  shallow  streams  con- 
verged into  Calumet  Lake  through  territory  now 
occupied  by  several  suburban  towns.  School 
children  of  Chicago  go  to  these  "islands"  today 


8 


THE    STORY    OJ:    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


to  study  the  effect  of  glacial  action. 

Marquette  did  not  take  note  in  his  journal  of 
the  forkings  of  the  Chicago  river,  but  otherwise 
lie  gave  an  accurate  and  minute  description  of 
the  region.  The  peculiar  sandbar  which  ob- 
structed the  mouth  would  alone  serve  to  identify 
it.  Francis  Parkman,  who  lived  for  years  in 
the  footsteps  of  the  early  French  explorers, 
states  positively  that  the  missionary  spent  the 
winter  of  1674-75  on  the  Chicago  river. 

Little  did  Marquette  dream  that  two  hundred 
years  after  his  mission  on  earth  was  finished  a 
city  larger  than  any  of  Europe  in  his  day  was 
to  spring  up  on  this  dreary  marsh,  vanish  in 
flames,  and  again  rise  in  greater  beauty  and 
strength  from  the  ashes.  And  little  did  the 
Pottawatomie  Indians  who  saw  the  Chicagou 
portage  for  the  first  time  dream  that  this  land 
was  to  become  the  scene  of  their  council  fires; 
that  they  were  to  wage  war  to  the  death  with 
the  Illinois  Indians  with  whom  they  now  vied 
in  attentions  to  Marquette;  that  when  a  cen- 
tury and  a  third  had  passed  their  descendants 
were  to  dance  around  the  blazing  fort  of  the 
first  white  settlers  in  Chicago. 

The  Indians  with  Marquette 
were  concerned  about  getting 
the  missionary  to  some  sort  of 
shelter,  for  it  was  clear  that 
he  was  too  ill  to  complete  the 
journey  to  Kaskaskia,  nearly 
one  hundred  miles  to  the  west. 
When,  on  the  12th  of  Decem- 
ber, the  river  had  frozen  over, 
they  improvised  a  sledge  of 
their  canoes  and  dragged  him 
up  the  stream.  How  they  <? 
must  have  longed  for  the  com- 
fortable dome-shaped,  rush- 
matted,  skin-lined  lodges  of  Kaskaskia  and 
its  stores  of  maize  and  pemmican! 

Where  Did  the  Hut  Stand?  Where,  now,  did 
the  missionary  find  a  resting  place?  He  says 
himself  that  they  proceeded  "about  two 
leagues"  up  the  river,  where  they  found  the 
abandoned  hut  of  two  couriers  du  vois,  who  were 
in  the  woods  with  the  Indians.  This  hut  had 
doubtless  been  left  by  a  trader.  The  trader  long 
preceded  the  explorer  and  missionary  in  the 
great  West,  but  he  was  usually  too  ignorant  or 
indifferent  to  leave  any  record  of  his  wander- 
ings. 

But  does  this  vague  description  help  us  very 
much  after  the  changes  of  so  many  years?  The 
river  has  been  widened,  deepened  and  straight- 
ened, the  very  course  of  the  water  turned  west- 
ward into  the  Drainage  canal.  The  old  sandbar 
is  gone,  and  a  deep  harbor  occupies  the  place 
of  shallow  water.  More  than  250  square  miles 
of  marsh  have  been  drained,  filled  in,  paved 
and  built  over.  All  inequalities  of  surface  and 
ancient  landmarks  have  disappeared. 

A  mile  and  a  half  back  from  its  old  mouth 


at  Madison  street  the  river  branched,  as  it  does 
today.  There  were  portages  into  the  Desplainea 
from  the  North  branch,  the  South  branch  and 
the  Calumet,  all  of  which  were  used  by  the  In- 
dians. It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  South 
branch  was  the  one  followed  by  Marquette,  for 
by  both  the  other  routes  the  measurements  are 
almost  double  those  given  by  him. 

But  now  comes  confusion.  The  league  has 
varied  in  length  in  every  country  and  century, 
and  so  has  the  mile.  The  English  land  league 
and  the  marine  league  used  by  seamen  was  three 
miles  long.  France  had  leagues  of  2.42,  2.764 
and  3.52  miles  in  length.  In  the  Seventeenth 
century  the  posting  league  of  3.52  miles  was 


-MAP    OF    CHICAGOU    PORTAGE    AND    LOCATION 

OF    MARQTTETTE'S    CABIN. 

"It  is  on  this  bit  of  ground  on  the 

edge  of  the  oak  woods,  that,  the  cabin  has  been 
located  by  Mr.  Dilg. ' ' 

used  by  French  explorers  in  the  New  World. 
"About  two  leagues,"  then,  would  have  meant 
something  less  than  seven  miles.  Before  that 
distance  is  reached  on  the  Chicago  river,  how- 
ever, the  South  branch  forks  again  into  the  West 
and  South  forks.  Upon  which  of  these  was  the 
cabin  located? 

Had  the  party  been  going  directly  through  to 
the  Desplaines  the  West  fork  would  have  been 
followed,  for  this  was  the  portage  route.  As- 
suming that  they  intended  going  on,  one  histo- 
rian at  first  located  the  cabin  hear  where  Ash- 
land avenue  crosses  the  West  fork.  Upon  fur- 
ther investigation  he  placed  it  at  the  foot  of 
Center  avenue,  near  Twenty-second  street,  where 
the  famous  Lee's  Place  cabin  afterward  stood. 
This  point  was  only  a  league  and  a  half  from 
the  mouth  of  the  river.  Still  later,  however, 
this  same  historian  concluded  that  the  cabin 
must  have  been  close  to  the  stockyards  on  the 
South  fork. 

The  West  fork  is  on  the  portage,  while  Mar- 
quette says  he  was  ' '  near  the  portage,  on  a 
little  hillock."  The  West  fork  was  uniformly 


THE    STOKY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


low  and  marshy.  On  the  South  fork  there  was 
a  bit  of  rising  ground  where  is  now  the  cast 
end  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Street  bridge,  at  the  in- 
tersection of  Center  avenue.  This  point  was 
six  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

It  is  on  this  bit  of  ground  that  was  elevated 
above  the  marsh,  and  that  stood  on  the  edge  of 
the  oak  woods,  thus  being  dry  and  somewhat 
sheltered  from  the  winds  that  swept  the  plain, 
the  cabin  has  been  located  by  Mr.  Carl  Dilg, 
an  archaeologist  of  Chicago.  By  a  dozen 
years  of  tramping  and  digging  in  the  ground 
to  find  sepultured  bones,  chert  arrow-heads,  an. I 
fragments  of  Indian  pottery,  he  has  succeeded 
in  mapping  all  the  Indian  villages  and  trails  in 
Cook  county.  His  map  covers  forty  miles  of 
lake  shore  and  all  the  territory  back  to  the 
ridge  at  Eiverside.  It  is  only  a  manuscript  map 
today  and  it  is  kept  locked  in  the  safe  at  the 
Chicago  Historical  Library. 

To  the  writer  of  this  history  Mr.  Dilg  has 
given  this  valuable  fragment  of  his  map  and 
the  data  explaining  it,  showing  the  Chicagou 
portage,  by  way  of  the  South  branch,  into  the 
Desplaines,  the  land  trails  and  water  route  and 
the  location  of  the  Marquette  cabin.  Whether 
he  is  right  in  all  his  conclusion?  is  not  deter- 
mined, but  certainly  no  one  else  has  gone  so 
exhaustively  into  this  obscure  field  of  inquiry 
or  presented  his  material  so  convincingly. 

In  our  map,  which  is  clear  of  the  confusion  of 
streets  which  criss-cross  maps  of  Chicago  today, 
you  can  see  the  entire  region  was  one  of  natural 
waterways.  The  forks  of  the  Chicago  and  tiie 
Desplaines  almost  inclose  a  tract  called  the 
Mud  Lake  region.  The  entire  tract  was  subject 
to  overflow,  the  lake  expanding  to  the  highest 
banks  of  the  streams  in  every  spring  freshet. 
It  is  down  the  bed  of  old  Mud  Lake  that  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  and  the  Drainage 
canal  have  been  led  until,  at  the  town  of  Sum- 
mit, they  are  carried  over  the  higher  level,  after 
which  they  follow  the  valley  of  the  Desplaines. 

Marquette  said  that  in  dry  weather  the  In- 
dians had  to  carry  their  canoes  across  the  prairie 
nine  miles,  but  when  the  prairie  was  flooded 
there  was  only  half  a  league — one  and  three- 
fourths  miles — to  be  made  by  land.  These  meas- 
urements have  been  verified  by  modern  surveys. 

On  the  rise  at  Thirty-fifth  street  on  the  South 
fork  Mr.  Dilg  found  all  the  evidences  of  an 
Indian  village.  Marquette  says  that  Indians 
were  camped  around  his  cabin.  At  this  point, 
also,  the  Tyanockee  trail  branched,  one  branch 
going  down  to  the  Calumet  region  and  the  other 
crossing  the  South  fork  near  the  stockyards. 
The  missionary  says  that  Illinois  Indians  passed 
his  door  carrying  their  furs.  He  was  thus  on 
dry  ground,  in  the  shelter  of  trees,  in  an  Indian 
village,  and  on  a  constantly  traveled  trail.  In 
such  a  situation  he  could  best  be  cared  for. 


The  winter  could  not  have  been  other  than 
dreary.  Wind  and  snow  held  high  carnival  on 
the  bleak  wastes.  -With  the  alternate  thawing 
and  freezing  of  the  slough  and  the  watercourses 
hunting  must  have  been  difficult.  Few  Indians 
remained  in  the  village  over  the  winter,  but 
were  off  in  the  woods  where  game  was  more 
plentiful.  The  two  French  voyageurs  with  Mar- 
quette killed  three  buffaloes  and  four  deer,  and 
other  supplies  were  brought  in  by  Mascoutins — 
the  rude  and  boorish  tribe  which  then  occupied 
the  site  of  Chicago.  Once  a  French  voyageur 
visited  the  sick  missionary,  coming  a  hundred 


THE  CHICAGO  PLAIN. 

"Back  to  the  horizon,  fifteen  miles  to  the 
west,  where  a  low  ridge  marked  the  ancient 
limits  of  Lake  Michigan  *  stretched 

one  vast  tract  of  half-frozen  marsh. ' ' 


miles,  in  all  probability,  for  a  blessing. 

It  was  late  in  March  when  the  ice  broke  up 
in  the  Desplaines  and  flooded  the  prairie.  Mar- 
quette embarked  from  his  cabin  door  in  a  canoe 
and  was  rowed  back  to  the  portage  and  across  to 
the  ridge.  Both  Eiverside  and  Summit  claim  the 
honor  of  being  at  the  west  end  of  the  Chicagou 
portage,  and  Summit  has  erected  a  monument  of 
rock  from  the  Drainage  canal  near  the  Alton 
depot  to  mark  the  supposed  spot  where  Mar- 
quette left,  his  caiioe  and  crossed  the  ridge  to 
the  Desplaines. 

One  historian  takes  the  position  that  Mar- 
quette crossed  at  Summit  in  the  autumn  of  '73 
when  with  Joliet,  and  at  Riverside  on  the  second 
voyage  in  the  spring  of  '75.  Marquette,  in  his 
famous  journal,  says:  "Here  we  commenced 
our  portage  eighteen  months  ago, ' '  which  clear- 
ly conveys  the  information  that  he  used  the 
same  route  on  both  voyages. 


10 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Suggestions  for  Teachers  and  Pupils.  In  con- 
nection with  this  chapter  there  are  opportunities 
for  schools  to  make  special  local  studies  at  Niag- 
ara, Detroit,  Mackiiiac,  St.  Joseph,  South  Bend, 
Chicago,  LaSalle  county,  Illinois,  and  Peoria. 
Fort  Crevecceur  is  believed  to  have  been  on  the 
Tazewell  county  shore  of  Peoria  Lake,  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  from  the  outlet. 

The  Chicago  Historical  Library  is  full  of  ma- 
terial for  the  student.  Here  may  be  seen  bronze 
bas-relief  panels  and  portrait  busts,  fine  oil 
paintings  of  the  explorers,  and  water  colors1  of 
the  Mud  Lake  region,  Starved  Eock  and  other 
points  here  mentioned.  Miss  Caroline  Mcllvaine, 
the  librarian,  has  requested  us  to  inform  teachers 
and  schools  that  when  visiting  the  library  they 
should  first  apply  to  her  in  the  office  at  the 
rear  of  the  entrance  hall.  One  of  the  attend- 
ants will  always  be  assigned  to  show  and  ex- 
plain the  matter  illustrating  any  particular  time 
or  event. 


How  the  Indians  "Surveyed"  the  Burlington. 
The  Riverside-Lyons  ford  was  the  one  used  by 
the  Indians  in  wet  weather  and  dry.  The 
French  explorers  and  voyageurs  were  usually 
guided  by  Indians,  and  always  followed  the 
.Indian  trails.  In  later  days  the  white  settler^ 
around  Fort  Dearborn  used  this  Indian  trail.  It 
was  also  followed  by  the  earliest  stage-coach 
lines  to  the  west,  by  the  first  plank  road  to  Au- 
rora and  later  by  the  builders  of  the  Burlington 
railroad. 

This  route  was  the  straightest  and  dryest  one 
to  the  ridge,  being  above,  flood  level.  Roads 
and  railroad  beds  were  thus  more  easily  graded. 

Below  the  ridge  at  Summit  was  a  bottomless 
morass,  on  the  borders  of  Mud  Lake.  Traces  of 
this  swamp  exist  today.  For  this  reason  it  was 
found  easier  to  lead  the  two  canals  over  the 
Summit-Level.  Nature  had  already  done  much 
of  the  excavating  necessary.  We  must  assume, 
then,  that  it  was  at  Riverside,  a  little  north  of 
the  Burlington  railway  bridge,  where  the  shelv- 
ing banks  furnished  an  easy  slope  for  launching 
canoes,  and  later  for  a  wagon  ford,  that  Mar- 
quotte  embarked  on  the  beautiful  Desplaines — 
"the  river  of  the  maples" — where  in  the  first 
warm  days  of  spring  the  trees  were  covered  with 
scarlet  bloom. 

Marquette  arrived  in  the  great  Illinois  Indian 
village  of  Kaskaskia  in  April.  He  was  received, 
as  he  quaintly  records  in  his  journal,  "like  an 
angel  from  heaven."  He  seems  only  to  have  set 
up  a  cross  and  an  altar  on  the  meadow  below 
the  lordly  bluff,  to  have  confessed  and  blessed 
his  new  converts,  and  then  to  have  departed,  a 
sorrowful  procession  of  Illinois  warriors  ac- 
companying him  back  to  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan. 

Death  of  Marquette.  Late  in  the  month  of 
May,  1675,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  he  died 
on  the  bank  of  a  little  stream  in  Michigan,  just 


south  of  the  promontory  called  Sleeping  Bear 
Point.  The  little  town  of  Glenn  Haven  stands 
today  nearest  this  historic  scene,  on  the  point 
which  extends  from  the  mainland  opposite  the 
Manitou  Islands.  The  next  year  the  bones  ot 
the  missionary  were  moved  by  a  procession  of 
thirty  canoes,  manned  by  Pottawatomies,  Ot- 
tawas  and  Hurons,  to  some  other  point,  but  as 
to  where  they  were  taken  the  historians  are  not 
agreed.  Some  say  to  Point  St.  Ignace  on  the 
north  shore  of  the  strait,  where  a  monument  has 
been  erected  to  mark  his  tomb.  Others  say  to 
Frankfort  or  Ludington,  Mich.,  in  a  country 
the  Pottawatomies  were  beginning  to  occupy, 
and  still  others  to  the  St.  Francis  Xavier  mis- 
sion at  Green  Bav.  Still  others  claim  the  honor 


LA    SALLE'S    LIEUTENANT,    HENKI    DE    TONTY. 
Tonty  lost  a  hand  in  Italian  wars  and  wore  a 
gloved  hand  of  jointed  steel.    This  is  shown  on  the 
bronze   panel. 


for  Old  Mackinac,  declaring  that  he  was  laid 
there  under  the  floor  of  his  bark  chapel,  all 
traces  of  which  disappeared  in  the  half  century 
that  British  and  American  troops  occupied  the 
post.  This  seems  the  most  reasonable  theory, 
for  LaSalle  a  few  years  later  put  into  the  Bay 
of  Mackinac  in  his  sailing  vessel  and  prayed 
at  Marquette 's  grave  before  proceeding  on  his 
voyage. 

From  the  great  West  Marquette  vanished  like 
some  dim  figure  of  a  medieval  saint.  Long  was 
his  spirit  invoked  by  the  Algonquin  tribes  to 
still  the  tempests  on  the  Great  Lakes.  Joliet 
never  returned  to  the  West,  but  found  in  domes- 
tic life  in  Montreal  consolation  for  the  loss  of 
his  papers. 

An  Empire  Builder  and  His  Dreams.  And  now 
there  loomed  up  a  man  of  different  stamp  from 
either  of  these;  one  of  imperial  enterprise  and 
resource,  of  practical  energy  and  undaunted 


11 


THE    STORY    OP    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


courage;  one  with  the  spirit  of  the  Twentieth 
rather  than  of  the  Seventeenth  century.  Park- 
man  has  called  hhn  the  ' '  undespairing  Nor- 
man." 

This  was  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle. 
Like  the  names  of  other  men  who  have  filled 
unique  places  in  history,  his  has  been  shortened 
to  LaSalle. 

We  are  glad  that  we  have  in  Illinois  a  city 
and  county  of  LaSalle;  and  it  is  fitting  that 
the  great  building  occupied  by  the  Board  of 
Trade  in  Chicago,  which  rules  the  price  of  grain 
for  the  world,  should  front  LaSalle  street.  If 
this  explorer  were  with  us  today  he  would  bo 
reaching  out  for  the  empire  of  commerce.  He 
was  destined  to  explore  the  Mississippi  to  its 
mouth,  claim  ilj  vast  basin  for  the  French 
crown,  and  give  it  the  name  of  Louisiana. 

When  he  began  his  task  he  was  penniless, 
unknown,  of  middle-class  birth — a  handicap  in 
those  days  of  privilege  for  nobles — and  be  was 


that  the  Mississippi  flows  into  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico. He  knew  that  it  has  great  tributaries  which 
he  was  sure  must  drain  a  fertile,  temperate  basin 
more  than  a  thousand  miles  wide.  With  this 
knowledge  he  went  to  France  and  secured  from 
the  king  a  commission  to  explore,  fortify,  col- 
onize and  trade  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

LaSalle  Begins  His  Great  Work.  He  sold  his 
estate  at  La  Chine  on  Montreal  Island,  mort- 
gaged Fort  Frontenac,  which  was  included  in 
his  grant,  and  thus  obtained  money  to  build  a 
fort  at  Niagara  and  a  sailing  vessel,  the  ' '  Grif- 
fin. "  The  first  sails  were  unfurled  on  the  Great 
Lakes  in  1679— the  "floating  fort"  the  Indians 
called  it  when  it  swung  into  the  snug  cove  at 
Michilimackinae  and  dropped  anchor  in  the 
midst  of  a  hundred  bark  canoes  "like  a  triton 
among  minnows."  Its  cannon  awoke  the  echoes 
of  the  wooded  cliffs.  At  Marquette  's  tomb  La- 
Salle prayed  in  a  mantle  of  scarlet  edged  with 
gold.  No  humble  petitioner  this,  but  a  eon- 


KASKASKIA   IN   1901. 

"In  that  lovely  green  peninsula — an  island  today — the   mis- 
sion established  by  Marquette  was  continued." 


a  man  of  few  words  and  a  haughty  spirit  that 
repelled  comradeship.  He  had  been  educated  in 
the  order  of  the  Jesuits— taught  to  obey  when 
he  was  born  to  command.  All  these  difficulties 
he  overcame.  Look  in  his  face  and  you  may 
see  why  he  was  to  become  the  first  great  self- 
made  man  who  ever  trod  the  ground  which  now 
lies  a  dozen  feet  under  the  uavements  of  Chi- 
cago. 

When  Joliet  returned  to  Montreal  in  1674 
LaSalle  was  in  command  at  Fort  Frontenac,  the 
French  frontier  post  at  the  foot  of  Lake  On- 
tario. You  may  imagine  how  he  gloated  over 
Joliet 's  maps  and  journal  of  that  first  voyage 
down  the  great  river,  as  a  miser  gloats  over 
treasure.  For  years  he  had  dreamed  of  the  em- 
pire in  the  great  West  to  be  won  for  France. 
Now  his  dreams  took  shape.  He  knew  positively 


qnoror,  whom  only  death  could  defeat. 

From  Green  Bay  the  "Griffin"  was  sent  back 
to  Montreal  with  a  load  of  furs.  Guided  by 
Pottawatomies,  who  then  occupied  the  east  shore 
of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Grand  river,  LaSalle, 
with  his  fourteen  white  men  and  his  faithful 
Mohegan,  Nika,  paddled  to  the  St.  Joseph  river. 
There,  while  waiting  for  his  lieutenant,  Henri 
de  Tonty,  who  had  preceded  him  to  the  Illinois 
country  to  prepare  for  his  coming,  he  built  Fort 
Miami.  The  St.  Joseph  and  Kankakee  rivers, 
through  the  portage  at  South  Bend,  Ind.,  ever 
afterward  formed  LaSalle 's  favorite  route  to  the 
Illinois.  In  the  next  year  he  erected  Fort  Creve- 
cceur  at  Peoria,  and  began  to  build  a  vessel  on 
Peoria  Lake  for  the  voyage  down  the  Mississippi. 

Leaving  Tonty  to  fortify  the  bluff  (now 
Starved  Rock)  at  Kaskaikia,  which  contained 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


ut  that  time  no  less  than  460  Illinois  Indian 
lodges,  LuSalle  went  back  to  Montreal  for  sup- 
plies, for  the  ' '  Griffin ' '  had  been  lost  on  the 
return  voyage.  In  this  journey  (March,  1680) 
he  passed  through  Chicagou  portage,  of  which 
lie  had  had  an  account  from  Joliet.  Because  of 
the  ice  he  hid  his  canoes  on  an  island  in  the 
Desplaines,  near  the  present  site  of  the  city  of 
Joliet,  and  struck  across  the  prairie  toward 
Lake  Michigan.  Joliet,  when  detained  at  Fort 
Frontenac,  had  told  LaSalle  that  "it  would  be 
possible  to  go  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Mississippi 
in  boats,  and  by  very  good  navigation,  if  there 
would  be  cut  a  canal  through  a  half  league  of 
prairie  at  the  Chicagou  portage. ' ' 

LaSalle  found  here  one  vast  tract  of  half- 
frozen  mud  and  snow.  It  was  just  before  the 
spring  freshet,  and  Mud  Lake  was  doubtless 
shrunk  to  its  smallest  dimensions,  for  LaSalle 
wrote  to  Count  Frontenac,  governor  of  New 
France,  disdainfully  of  Joliet 's  ' '  proposed  ditch 
at  the  Portage  du  Chicagou. ' '  This  is  his  de- 
scription of  the  existing  waterway: 


At  41°  50'  north  latitude,  at  the  west  of  the 
Lake  of  the  Illinois,  is  a  channel  formed  by  the 
junction  of  several  rivulets  or  meadow  ditches. 
It  is  navigable  for  about  two  leagues,  where  is 
a  little  lake  divided  by  a  causeway  made  by 
beavers  and  is  about  a  league  and  a  half  long, 
from  which,  again,  runs  a  stream  which  flows 
into  the  Illinois  (Desplaines).  This  little  lake 
is  filled  by  spring  freshets  and  discharges  into 
the  Desplaines  and  also  into  the  Lake  of  the  Illi- 
nois (Michigan),  which  is  only  seven  feet  lower 
than  the  level  of  this  prairie.  The  Illinois  (Des- 
plaines), in  the  spring,  when  its  channel  is  over- 
full, sends  a  part  of  its  water  by  this  little  lake 
into  the  Lake  of  the  Illinois. 


LaSalle  did  not  consider  a  canal  such  as  Joliet 
proposed  feasible,  for  the  supply  of  water  varied 
so  with  the  seasons.  What  would  he  say  could 
he  see  two  canals  connecting  Lake  Michigan 
with  the  Illinois,  one  of  them  not  for  commerce, 
but  to  secure  the  health  of  the  2,000,000  inhab- 
itants of  the  Chicagou  portage? 

Six  months  later  Tonty  flod  from  the  Iroquois 
and  Miamis  over  the  marsh  at  Chicago.  The 
Illinois  village  of  Kaskaskia  had  been  destroyed, 
the  Indian  allies  of  the  French  massacred,  cap- 
tured and  scattered  far  down  the  Mississippi. 
It  was  October  (1680)  when  Tonty  reached  the 
Chicagou  portage,  and  the  cold  was  bitter.  Two 
Franciscan  priests,  Father  Riborde  and  Father 
Boisrondet.  and  two  other  Frenchmen  were  with 
him.  Futlier  ftiborde  was  wantonly  murdered 
by  a  wandering  band  of  Kickapoos,  and  Father 
Boisrondet  was  lost  for  some  days  on  the  marsh 


while  trying  to  find  game  for  the  starving  fugi- 
tives. Tonty  himself  was  sick  of  a  malaria 
fever  and  may  have  lain  in  the  same  hut  that 
had  sheltered  Marquette  fifteen  years  before. 
The  whole  party  was  kept  alive  by  wild  onions 
which  they  grubbed  from  the  marsh.  It  was 
the  end  of  November  before  they  reached  Green 
Bay. 

The  Lord  of  the  Wilderness  and  His  Bed  Re- 
tainers. The  next  year  LaSalle  and  Tonty  were 
back  at  the  ruined  village  of  Kaskaskia,  near 
the  present  Utica,  building  Fort  St.  Louis  on 
the  isolated  cliff,  and  gathering  about  them  a 
great  confederacy  of  Algonquin  and  other  tribes 
to  defend  the  country  and  the  Indians  from  the 
conquering  Iroquois.  The  Illinois,  the  Miamis, 
who  repented  of  their  brief  alliance  with  the 


THE    GRIFFIN. 

"Its   cannon   awoke   the   echoes   of   the   wooded 
cliffs. ' ' 

common  enemy;  Shawanoes,  \Veas,  Piankeshas, 
Pepikakias,  Kilaticas,  Abenakis,  Mohegans,  and 
many  other  tribes  with  names  too  barbarous  to 
be  recorded,  to  the  number  of  4,000  warriors, 
with  their  women  and  children,  were  gathered 
about  the  Rock  of  St.  Louis  "like  European 
peasants  of  the  Middle  Ages  about  the  castle 
of  a  feudal  lord. ' '  As  yet  there  were  no  Potta- 
watomies  below  the  Grand  river  in  Michigan. 

This  extraordinary  confederacy,  which  La- 
Salle was  able  to  form  to  check  the  advance  of 
the  Iroquois,  needs  explanation. 

Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Algonquin  Empire.  The 
Algonquin  nation  had  formerly  been  the  largest 
on  the  North  American  continent.  It  was  com- 
posed of  a  score  of  tribes,  related  in  language 
and  customs  and  knit  in  close  aggressive  alli- 
ance. These  had  spread  from  Labrador  to  the 
Rockies  and  southward  to  North  Carolina.  The 
Five  Nations,  who  made  up  the  Iroquois  con- 
federacy, were  driven  out  of  Canada  into  the 
present  state  of  New  York.  There  they  lived 
precariously  for  a  century  or  more,  nursing  their 
grievances  and  biding  their  time. 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Origin  of  the  Name  "Chicago."  There 
are  many  theories  as  to  the  origin  of  the  name 
"Chicago."  The  one  that  has"  geeii  generally 
accepted  is  that  it  is  an  Indian  word,  signifying 
a  bad  smell.  As  applied  to  this  region  it  is 
supposed  to  have  referred  to  the  wild  onions 
which  grew  rankly  all  over  the  marshy  plain. 
By  other  authorities  the  name  is  said  to  have 
been  derived  from  an  Indian  word  meaning 
strong  or  mighty.  The  Indians  are  said  to  have 
applied  the  name  to  the  Mississippi,  to  thunder, 
and  to  the  voice  of  the  Great  Manitou.  Father 
llennepin  used  the  name  to  designate  the  Illi- 
nois river.  On  Franquelins'  map  (1684)  it  is 
given  to  the  Ohio  river.  Samson  (1673),  geog- 
rapher to  Louis  XIV.,  applied  it  to  the  Missis- 
sippi. LaSallc  gave  the  name  to  the  Desplaines 
and  also  to  the  Calumet.  Doubtless  he  applied 
it  to  this  whole  region  of  connected  waterways. 
He  speaks  of  the  "Chicagou  portage."  The 
name  came  at  last  to  designate  both  the  plain 
and  the  river  which  bear  it  today,  long  before 
Fort  Dearborn  came  to  be  built.  The  fort  at 
Chicagou  and  the  Miami  village  are  referred  t<^ 
by  St.  Cosme,  who  was  here  in  1699.  About 
1735  the  French  commandant  at  Green  Bay,  in 
a  letter,  speaks  of  the  Indians  who  obstruct 
passage  through  Chicagou  and  the  Illinois.  And 
in  1778,  during  the  Eevolution,  the  British  com- 
mander at  Maekinac  refers  to  the  negro  Jean 
Baptiste  Pointe  de  Saible  as  being  at  Chicagou 
"very  much  in  the  interest  of  the  French" 
(then  on  the  lower  Mississippi).  Under  the 
name  of  Chicago  the  tract  was  conveyed  to  the 
United  States  in  1795  by  the  Indians. 

When  the  French 
reached  Canada  in  1609 
the  power  of  the  Algon- 
quins  was  waning.  It 
was  disputed  by  the 
fierce  Sioux,  far  to  the 
west;  by  the  swift- 
moving  Sacs  and  Foxes 
:>f  Wisconsin;  by  the 
Tuscaroras  in  North 
Carolina,  who  ultimate- 
ly joined  the  Iroquois 
nr.d  thus  formed  the  Six 
Nations;  and  by  the 
Iroquois  in  New  York. 
N  o  w  prosperity  had 
caused  the  Algonquins 
to  relax  their  vigilance, 
and  many  breaks  had 
been  in  a  d  e  in  their 
ranks.  They  had  also 
grown  more  civilized 
and  at  the  same  time 
more  peacable.  The 
populous  village,  with  WA-PA-KE-SEK. 

its  well-built  lodges  and       Chief  of  Sac  and  Fox 
fields     of     maize,     w  a  s  Tribe. 


more  attractive  to  them  than  the  war-path. 
They  fell  easily  under  the  blandishments  of  the 
French  and  became  converts  who  delighted  the 
Jesuit  and  Franciscan  missionaries. 

You  will  remember  that 
after  Nicolet's  voyage  to 
Green  Bay  in  1634  the  Iro- 
quois swarmed  over  into 
Canada  and  drove  the  Al- 
gonquin tribes  to  the  upper 
lakes.  From  this  blow, 
after  a  generation,  they  re- 
covered, and  once  more,  but 
in  lessened  number,  occu- 
pied the  banks  of  the  Ot- 
tawa and  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  afforded  the  French  a 
safe  route  to  the  Miss. 
Now,  with  startling  suddenness,  the  Iroquois 
had  swept  across  Ohio  and  Indiana  and  de- 
stroyed a  flourishing  Illinois  town  of  500  lodges. 
No  tribe  in  the  Middle  West  felt  safe  from  this 
relentless  foe.  It  was  with  gratitude  that  20,000 
Indians  accepted  the  promise  of  French  protec- 
tion from  LaSalle  and  huddled  below  his  mag 
cannon  on  the  Rock  of  St.  Louis.  The  Chicagou 
and  St.  Joseph  portages  were  kept  open  by  the 
Miamis  and  Pottawatomies,  so  that  communica- 
tion with  Montreal  was  safe  and  swift. 

A  Great  Exploit,  and  How  It  Was  Rewarded. 
To  complete  this  brilliant  exploit  LaHalle  went 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  He  reached 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  9th  of  April,  1682, 
named  the  country  Louisiana,  and  proclaimed 
the  sovereignty  of  France  over  it.  He  saw  the 
necessity  for  direct  communication  with  Paris, 
for  the  Iroquois  might  compel  him  to  cut  loose 
from  New  France.  In  LaSalle 's  plans  Louisiana 
was  to  become  a  separate  colony.  He  really  had 
the  beginnings  of  an  empire  a  hundred  miles 
west  of  Chicago  in  the  year  1682,  a  year  before 
Penn  signed  his  famous  treaty  with  the  Indians 
at  Philadelphia. 

"Did  not  Paris,"  I.  imagine  you  asking,  "go 
wild  with  delight  :.t  this  news?  Did  not  Louis 
XIV.,  who  knew  how  to  reward  greatness,  load 
this  amazing  man  with  honors  and  wealth?  Did 
not  the  governor  of  New  France  send  in  sol- 
diers, guns  and  supplies  to  hold  that  empire  and 
to  sustain  the  red  allies  of  France?  Did  not 
colonists — carpenters,  smiths,  shipwrights,  farm- 
ers, millers  and  traders — swarm  into  that  virgin 
land  to  reap  its  riches?" 

No.  Strange  as  it  seems,  none  of  these  things 
happened.  But  little  appreciation  of  these  great 
services  of  LaSallc  was  shown  by  any  of  his 
contemporaries. 

LaSalle  had  spent  40,000  crowns  (the  French 
crown,  before  the  Eighteenth  century,  varied  in 
value  from  $1.50  to  $2.20)  in  his  explorations. 
This  he  had  raised  by  the  sale  of  his  own 
seigniory  at  La  Chine  on  Montreal  Island,  bv 
mortgaging  Fort  Frontenac,  by  begging  and  bor- 


14 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


rowing  of  rich  relatives  in  France  who  were 
proud  of  him,  and  by  persuading  traders  in 
Montreal  to  invest  in  his  speculative  enterprise. 
Large  powers  had  been  given  him  by  the  French 
king,  but  no  means  of  developing  them.  His 
friend  and  patron,  Count  Frontenac,  governor  of 
New  France,  was  dead,  and  in  his  stead  ruled 
La  Barre,  the  explorer's  unscrupulous,  envious 
rival. 

LaSalle  had  found, 
claimed  and  opened  up  an 
empire,  built  forts  and  or- 
ganized an  army  of  red 
soldiers  whose  salvation 
depended  on  their  fealty 
to  the  French  crown  and 
the  redemption  of  La- 
Salle's  promises  of  pro- 
tection. He  was  to  arm 
and  drill  them.  In  return 
they  were  to  bring  him 
their  furs,  reveal  their 
mines,  and  help  him  con- 
quer the  tribes  of  the 
lower  Mississippi.  In  his 
large  vision  ho  already 
saw  a  French  fleet  trad- 
ing on  the  Mississippi  and 
a  chain  of  forts  strung 
along  its  banks.  He  had  entered  into  negotia- 
tions for  the  friendship  of  the  Chickasaw  and 
Natchez  Indians  in  Arkansas  and  Mississippi. 

But  now  he  was  bankrupt  of  funds,  and  en- 
emies in  Montreal  were  undermining  his  work. 
He  was  discredited  in  Paris.  Doubts  were  even 
expressed  that  he  had  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi,  or  that  the  ' '  Coloine  du  Sieur  de  Ja 
Salle"  about  the  Rock  of  St.  Louis  had.  other 
existence  than  in  the 'disordered  brain  of  a  reck- 
less adventurer. 

Father  Hennepiu,  the  Recollet  friar  whom 
LaSalle  had  sent  to  explore  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi and  who  really  reached  the  falls  of  St. 
Anthony,  had  returned  to  France  and  out  of 
sheer  vanity  claimed  the  honor  of  having  ex- 
plored the  mouth  of  the  great  river  himself.  He 
was  a  facile  and  convincing  writer  and,  from 
his  published  book  and  maps,  won  more  than  a 
brief  glory.  LaSalle 's  claims  were  dismissed 
without  a  hearing  as  a  piece  of  effrontery,  and 
the  man  himself  was  considered  a  dangerous  vis- 
ionary gone  mad.  Word  went  forth  that  his 
pretensions  were  to  be  checked  lest  he  demoral- 
ize the  Indians  and  break  up  the  fur  trade  of 
New  France. 

Waiting  there  at  the  fort  on  the  lordly  bluff, 
his  proud  heart  bursting  with  high  hope  for  the 
glorious  future  of  Louisiana,  waiting  for  tin- 
help  and  recognition  due  him.  LaSalle  suddenly 


French     Soldier     In 

Illinois.      Early 

Eighteenth. 

Century. 


saw  his  work  crumble  into  dust.  Supplies  from 
New  France  were  cut  off,  and  he  was  forbidden 
to  engage  in  the  fur  trade. 

"The  Undespairing  Norman."  This  was  bit- 
ter defeat.  Any  other  man  would  have  given 
up  in  despair;  LaSalle  returned  to  France  to 
face  his  enemies  and  to  get  the  ear  of  the  king. 
It  was  in  1684  that  he  passed  through  the 
Chicagou  portage  for  the  last  time.  He  was 
detained  there  for  several  days  by  a  snowstorm. 
Then  he  embarked  on  Lake  Michigan.  Watch 
him  as  his  frail  bark  canoe  dances  on  the  rip- 
pling lake,  that  gallant  figure  with  the  clean-cut, 
haughty  face  and  undaunted  eyes.  Now  the 
canoe  is  a  mere  speck  on  the  blue  expanse; 
then  it  vanishes.  Chicagou  is  to  see  the  "un- 
despairing  Norman"  no  more! 

Does  it  not  thrill  you  to  think  that  the  city 
which  rose  on  the  shore  he  left  behind  him  is 
imbued  with  his  own  unconquerable  spirit? 

LaSalle  was  heard  and  believed.  He  complete- 
ly won  over  king  and  court.  He  got  all  he  asked 
for — ships,  money,  supplies,  soldiers,  colonists, 
authority  over  Louisiana — and  he  sailed  back, 
going  by  way  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  was 
to  be  hindered  no  more  by  the  petty  tyrants  at 
Montreal. 

Who  Was  Responsible  for  LaSalle 's  Assassina- 
tion? But  jealousy,  hatred  and  treachery  dogged 
his  footsteps.  Was  LaSalle 's  fleet  commander, 
Beaujeu,  paid  to  bring  his  expedition  to  disas- 
ter? In  Louisiana  LaSalle  was  to  represent  the 
person  and  authority  of  King  Louis,  but  on 
shipboard  he  was  under  the  fleet  commander. 
A  murmur  would  have  meant  mutiny;  mutiny — 
chains,  disgrace  and  failure.  Beaujeu  did  not 
conceal  his  hostility,  ignored  LaSalle 's  instruc- 
tions, sailed  past  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  landed  the  explorer  and  his  hapless  colonists 
400  miles  to  the  west,  on  the  shore  of  Texas. 
This  was  in  a  territory  occupied  by  Spain  and 
it  was  infested  with  unfriendly  tribes  of  In- 
dians. 

There,  after  long  wanderings  to  find  the  lost 
river,  after  battle,  famine  and  sickness  had  deci- 
mated his  followers,  LaSalle  was  assassinated  by 
mutineers  of  his  own  party.  While  he  undoubt- 
edly had  powerful  enemies  who  wrould  stoop  at 
nothing  to  compass  his  death,  yet  his  tragic 
fate  may  in  part  have  been  due  to  certain  traits 
in  the  explorer's  character. 

When  he  chose  to  exercise  them  LaSalle  was 
a  man  of  extraordinary  social  gifts.  He  charmed 
Louis  XIV.,  and  he  convinced  everyone  of  his 
brilliant  powers.  But  he  was  naturally  reserved 
and  haughty.  To  Count  Frontenac  and  Henri 
de  Tonty  he  no  doubt  poured  out  all  his  cher- 
ished dreams,  and  he  won  their  lifelong  devo- 
tion. To  no  other  did  he  seem  to  give  his  con- 
fidence or  affection.  This  bred  resentment  in 
men  of  small  imagination,  then  distrust,  and 
finally  treachery.  To  feel  themselves  despised 
by  a  man  whom  fortune  had  forgotten  aroused 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


all  the  basest  instincts  in  his  followers. 

LaSalle  's  faithful  lieutenant,  Henri  de  Touty, 
remained  in  the  Illinois  country,  engaged  in  a 
losing  fight  with  the  Iroquois,  Sacs  and  Foxes. 
Twice  he  went  down  the  Mississippi  to  find 
traces  of  his  dead  chief.  And  once,  when  hard- 
pressed  (1685),  he  went  up  to  Mackinac  for 
help,  and  brought  down  Durantaye  and  Du  Lhut 
(Duluth),  that  prince  of  coureurs  du  bois,  from 
the  country  of  the  Sioux.  Together  they  built 
a  fort  at  the  Chicagou  portage. 

The  Chicagou  Post  and  the  Lost  Boy.  There 
was  an  Indian  depot  or  post  at  Chicagou  as  early 
as  1682.  This  seems  to  have  been  rebuilt  or 
strengthened  in  1685,  when  Durantye  occupied  it 
with  sixty  French  soldiers.  From  that  time  to 
the  end  of  the  century  it  seems  to  have  been  one 
of  the  defenses  of  the  country,  for  a  Miami  vil- 
lage of  150  wigwams  was  clustered  around  it  in 
1699  when  St.  Cosme  passed  through  the  portage 
and  was  detained  "over  a  feast  day  among  my 
own  people  (French)  at  Chicagou"  by  the  loss 
of  a  young  French  boy  in  the  tall  grass  on  the 
marshy  plains. 

This  fort  and  Indian  village,  with  a  chapel  and 
priest 's  house,  were  on  the  north  side  of  the 
river,  probably  where  the  Kinzie  place  after- 
ward stood,  as  is  shown  in  Popple 's  map  of  1733. 
It  was  then  called  Fort  Miamis.  When,  in  1795, 
the  government  of  the  United  States  secured  the 
site  of  Chicago  by  the  Treaty  of  Greenville,  it 
was  described  as  a  place  "where  a  fort  formerly 
stood. ' ' 

This  fort  of  Durantye 's  could  in  any  case 
have  been  nothing  more  than  a  stout  stockade 
of  tree-trunks,  inclosing  rude  barracks  and  a 
storage  house.  There  were  no  large  guns,  for 


the  only  cannon  brought  into  the  Illinois  country 
at  so  early  a  date  were  the  two  small  ones  that 
were  mounted  on  the  Rock  of  St.  Louis.  Touty 
made  his  headquarters  until  the  close  of  the 
century  on  this  famous  bluff,  midway  between 
the  forts  of  Chicago  and  Feoria. 

Tonty  thus  had  three  strongholds  in  Illinois, 
which  for  twenty  years  kept  communication 
open  between  New  France  and  the  Mississippi. 
They  were  defended  not  only  by  small  bodies 
of  French  troops  but  by  the  five  tribes  of  the 
Illinois  Indians — the  Kaskaskias,  Peorias,  Ca- 
hokias,  Tamaroas  and  Mitchigamias.  The  Miami 
Indians,  who  were  disposed  at  this  time  to  ally 
themselves  with  the  French,  .stretched  from  the 
mission  village  at  Chicago,  which  grew  up  in 
the  shelter  of  the  fort,  across  Indiana  and  to 
the  Maumee  and  Scioto  rivers  in  Ohio,  with 
their  capital  at  Fort  Wayne,  and  resisted  the 
advance  of  the  Iroquois.  The  Pottawatomies 
were  working  steadily  downward  through  Michi- 
gan. All  the  prowess  of  this  tribe  was  at  the 
service  of  the  French. 

So  Tonty  waited  and  held  the  Illinois  country 
for  LaSalle,  who  lay  dead  on  the  banks  of  Trin- 
ity river,  Texas. 

LaSalle 's  Faithful  Lieutenant.  Think  of  him, 
too,  when  you  think  of  LaSalle.  Many  a  country 
has  served  the  captains  of  industry  of  Chicago  ' 
since,  and  helped  build  up  fortunes  and  enterprises 
not  their  own.  No  city  or  state  could  reach 
greatness  without  just  such  disinterested  serv- 
ices as  his.  Brilliant  mind,  faithful  heart,  ster- 
ling integrity,  untiring  energy,  he  gave  them  all 
to  his  illustrious  chief,  and  asked  no  reward,  not 
even  fame. 


A   FKENCH  VOYA(iKUR. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers  and  Pupils.  On  an 
outline  map  of  North  America,  pupils  may 
mark  the  locations  of  the  French  forts  which 
existed  in  1750  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  Ohio  anc^ 
Mississippi  valleys,  and  find  related  matter  in 
the  account  in  their  school  histories  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  Lives  of  Washington 
will  all  tell  of  his  long  journey  through  the 
wilderness  to  carry  the  message  from  Governor 
Dinwiddie  to  Fort  Duquesne,  and  of  his  surren- 
der of  Fort  Necessity. 

Of  the  French  settlements  and  Fort  Chartres 
in  Illinois,  there  is  practically  no  matter  that 


can  be  taken  into  the  school  room,  since  the 
period  has  not  had  its  popular  historian.  One 
of  the  popular  new  novels  is  based  on  John 
Law's  famous  Company  of  the  West.  It  is 
"The  Mississippi  Bubble,"  by  Emerson  Hough. 
Some  future  romancer,  perhaps,  may  find  in- 
spiration for  a  great  historical  novel  in  Pierre 
d 'Artaguette.  In  the  Chicago  Public  Library 
may  be  found  Edward  G.  Mason's  scholarly 
work,  "Illinois  in  the  Eighteenth  Century."  It 
is  recommended  for  reference.  The  state-house 
at  Springfielc!  has  a  mural  painting  of  Fort  Char- 
tres. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  FfciJNCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI    BOTTOM. 


(1700-1754.) 

The  Story  Thus  Far.  Having  found  Chicago 
to  be  the  most  available  portage  to  the  Illinois 
valley,  Marquette  returned  through  the  place 
(1675),  founded  his  mission  at  Kaskaskia,  and 
died.  In  1679  LaSalle  and  his  lieutenant,  Henri 
de  Tonty,  arrived  and  built  forts  on  Peoria  lake 
and  the  Rock  of  St.  Louis.  At  this  latter  place 
LaSalle  formed  his  confederacy  of  Indian  tribes 
to  hold  the  country  for  France.  He  returned  to 
France  for  help  and  was  assassinated  in  Texas. 
Tonty  built  a  fort  at  Chicagou  (1685),  and  oc- 
cupied the  Illinois  country  up  to  the  end  of  the 
century.  In  1699  St.  Cosme,  in  passing  through 
the  portage,  remained  for  several  days  "among 
his  own  people ' '  at  Chicagou. 

How  Fort  Dearborn  Came  to  Be  Built.  Now 
we  come  to  the  time  when  the  last  of  the  early 
French  explorers  is  to  disappear  from  northern 
Illinois.  After  twenty-seven  heroic  years  Chi- 
cago and  the  valley  of  the  Illinois  were  to  enter 
a  century  of  obscurity.  So  far  as  the  ordinary 
history  of  the  United  States  is  concerned  this 
hundred  years  in  the  Northwest  is  a  lost  century. 
The  single  event  that  is  considered  worthy  of 
record  is  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia  and  Vin- 
cennes  by  Col.  George  Eogers  Clark  from  the 
British  during  the  Revolution.  But  how  these 
places  came  to  be  on  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Wabash,  who  settled  them,  how  they  came  into 
the  possession  of  the  British,  and  why  their  cap- 
ture should  have  been  considered  an  important 
matter,  is  not  explained. 

Let  us  trace  the  history  of  this  lost  century 
and  study  the  stirring  events  which  led  up  to 
the  building  of  Fort  Dearborn  at  Chicago  in 
1803. 

Tonty  Gives  Up  the  Struggle.  In  1700  Henri 
de  Tonty  abandoned  the  Illinois  country.  Twen- 
ty years  had  he  held  the  disheartened  tribes  to- 
gether in  the  hope  that  France  would  redeem 


LaSalle 's  promises;  but  LaSalle  had  been  long 
dead  and  his  red  allies  forgotten  in  France. 
Now  word  came  that  France  was  to  take  up  La- 
Salle's  work,  not  where  he  had  left  off,  but  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river.  D'Iberville 
was  among  the  Biloxi  Indians  on  the  Gulf,  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  sent  for  Tonty 
to  help  him  fortify  Biloxi  and  Mobile,  for  Tonty 
went  down  the  river  to  Mobile  and  died  there 
in  1704. 

It  must  have  been  with  a  sad  heart  that  he 
advised  the  Illinois  Indians  to  leave  their  old 
home  and  go  down  the  great  river,  where  they 
could  again  live  under  the  protection  of  French 
forts  far  from  the  Iroquois  and  from  the  Sacs 
and  Foxes  who  now  preyed  on  their  lessened 
numbers. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  we  find  only 
a  few  Illinois  Indians  in  their  old  villages.  The 
Sacs  and  Foxes  filled  the  Rock  river  valley  and 
foraged  southward.  The  Miamis  moved  east- 
ward into  the  region  where  Fort  Wayne,  Ind., 
stands  today.  The  Pottawatomies  took  posses- 
sion of  the  end  of  Lake  Michigan  and  began  to 
use  the  Chicagou  portage.  It  was  with  the  Pot- 
tawatomies, Sacs  and  Foxes  that  the  soldiers  of 
Fort  Dearborn  and  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago 
had  to  deal  more  than  a  hundred  years  later. 

"Chicago:  The  Climax  and  Epitome  of  the 
West."  From  this  time  forward  the  history  of 
Chicago  is  the  history  of  the  Northwest.  Be- 
cause in  the  eighteenth  century  nothing  was  to 
happen  at  this  point,  it  is  all  the  more  neces- 
sary to  learn  of  the  development  which  took 
place  three  hundred  miles  behind  it  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  below  St.  Louis. 

For  the  next  twenty  years  French  missionaries 
alone  were  to  keep  the  little  spark  of  civilization 
alive  in  the  western  wilderness.  Tribe  after 
tribe  of  the  Illinois  Indians  journeyed  leisurely 
southward,  each  with  its  packs  of  skins  and 


17 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


canoe-loads  of  maize,  its  priest  and  mission  prop- 
erty, its  carpenter  and  blacksmith  outfit,  its 
millstones  and  few  small  firearms,  and  the  ponies, 
cattle  and  swine  that  had  been  brought  in  from 
New  France. 

These  bands  may  have  intended  going  down  to 
the  Gulf  with  Tonty,  but  they  would  have  had 
to  fight  their  way  through  the  fierce  Chickasaw 
and  Natchez  Indians.  Of  wars  they  were  weary 
and  in  the  end  they  paused  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  at  various  points  which  they 
found  unoccupied  between  the  present  site  of 
St.  Louis  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  river,  1,200 
miles  above  the  French  forts  at  Mobile  and 
Biloxi.  You  can  find  the  locations  of  their  new 
homes  today  by  the  names  of  villages  in  the 
region — Cahokia,  Kaskaskia  and  Tamaroa.  A 
number  of  the  Peorias  went  with  the  Cahokias, 
the  rest  remaining  at  Peoria  lake.  Of  the  Mitch- 
igamias  after  this  migration  there  is  no  trace. 
It  may  have  been  that  tribe  of  the  Illinois  which 
remained  at  the  Rock  of  St.  Louis  and  which 
caused  the  Lake  of  the  Illinois  to  change  its 
name  to  the  Lake  of  the  Mitchigamias — Lake 
Michigan. 

The    Founding    of    Illinois' 
First  Capital.     It  is  the  Kas-  r~ 

kaskias  with  whom  we  are 
chiefly  concerned.  This  tribe 
was  led  by  missionaries  to  the 
bank  of  the  Okaw  or  Kaskas- 
kia river  near  its  junction 
with  the  Mississippi.  On  that 
lovely  green  peninsula  —  an 
island  today,  bordered  on  two 
sides  by  the  broad  brown  flood 
of  the  Father  of  Waters,  on 
the  third  by  the  rippling 
Okaw,  and  sentineled  by  a 
lordly  line  of  bluffs  to  the 
east — the  mission  established 
by  Marquette  on  the  Illinois 
was  continued. 

From  a  mission  village  this 
new  Kaskaskia  was  to  become 


lower  Mississippi,  through  the  Ohio,  without 
passing  the  Illinois  villages. 

Except  at  Detroit,  where  Cadillac  built  Fort 
Ponchartrain  and  began  a  settlement  in  1701, 
the  French  made  no  further  attempt  to  open  up 
new  posts  on  the  upper  lakes,  contenting  them- 
selves with  holding  Michilimackinac,  the  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  Green  Bay  and  St.  Joseph.  A  new 
route  across  Indiana  into  the  Mississippi  they 
fortified  in  1702,  building  Fort  Ouatanon,  near 
the  portage  on  the  Wabash,  and  the  fort  and 
trading  post  of  Vinsenne  on  the  present  site  of 
Vincennes,  Ind. 

Ked  Warriors  Learn  the  Arts  of  Peace.  In 
the  meantime  in  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  all  the 
conditions  existed  under  which  primitive  peoples 
may  begin  to  take  the  first  steps  in  the  arts  of 
civilization.  The  Illinois  Indians  were  lost  to 
their  hereditary  foes  in  a  land  of  plenty.  Neith- 
er fear  nor  care  troubled  them.  The  climate  was 
milder  than  that  of  their  old  home,  game  abun- 
dant and  the  soil  fertile  and  easily  cultivated. 
Around  them  were  virgin  forests  and  ledges  of 
rock — materials  out  of  which  permanent  homes 
could  be  constructed.  They  had  domestic  ani- 


CHICAGO  AS  IT  PROBABLY  LOOKED   WHEN   SEEN   BY 
ST.  COSME,  1699. 


a  trading  post  and  parish;  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment of  the  French  commandant  of  the  Illinois 
country;  the  center  of  an  aristocratic  social  life; 
the  county  seat  of  a  single  county  of  Virginia 
that  comprised  five  of  our  present  states;  the 
capital  of  the  territory  of  Illinois;  and  finally, 
fifteen  years  before  Chicago  was  incorporated  as 
a  village,  the  capital  of  the  state  of  Illinois. 

For  eighteen  years  Kaskaskia  existed  almost 
without  communication  with  the  outer  world. 
The  only  material  for  the  historian  of  this  period 
is  to  be  found  in  the  mission  register  kept  by 
the  priests  and  in  the  periodical  reports  which 
they  made  to  the  College  of  Jesuits  at  Montreal. 

Traders  from  New  France  made  the  portage 
from  Lake  Erie  and  into  the  Wabash,  at  what  is 
now  Fort  Wayne — then  the  chief  village  of  the 
Miamis — on  the  Maumee,  and  so  reached  the 


mals  and  a  few  tools.  Best  of  all,  they  had 
with  them  priests  and  traders  who  could  instruct 
them. 

What  trades  do  you  think  were  learned  in 
those  mission  villages,  hundreds  of  leagues  from 
the  outposts  of  civilization? 

They  beat  out  plowshares  from  old  iron,  on 
the  anvil,  and  turned  up  the  soft  soil.  Oxen 
were  yoked  and  made  to  do  this  labor.  They 
grew  not  only  maize  but  wheat,  rye,  barley, 
beans,  hops  and  tobacco.  Of  rawhide  they  made 
flails  to  thresh  grain.  They  cut  down  timbers 
and  built  a  grist-mill  which  they  operated  by 
ox-power.  They  tempered  axes  and  picks,  quar- 
ried limestone  for  lime  to  make  mortar,  built 
stone  chapels  and  priests'  houses,  burned  char- 
coal for  the  forge,  and  dressed  millstones.  They 


18 


THE    STOKY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


herded  cattle  and  swine,  made  yeast  for  leaven- 
ing bread;  of  the  wild  grapes  on  the  bluff  they 
made  wine  for  the  communion. 

No  doubt  the  priests  laid  many  of  these  tasks 
on  their  red  converts  by  way  of  penance.  The 
Indians  never  took  kindly  to  such  work,  which 
they  must  have  looked  upon  as  unnecessary  toil. 
The  Illinois  were  a  dying  people  and  the  leth- 
argy and  docility  of  old  age  were  upon  them. 
There  were  no  more  than  six  hundred  warriors 
;il together,  and  the  year  1800  was  to  see  the 
tribes  reduced  to  thirty  warriors  and  living 
;imong  the  whites  at  Kaskaskia.  Now,  although 
they  toiled  for  the  priests  and  traders,  they  con- 


INDIAN  CHIEF. 


tinued  to  live  in  their  own  dome-shaped,  rush 
matted  and  skin-lined  lodges,  and  to  depend 
chiefly  on  the  chase,  the  rivers  and  the  maize 
fields  for  a  living. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years  a  number  of 
Frenchmen  made  Kaskaskia  their  headquarters 
for  trading.  Furs  were  brought  clown  from 
Peoria  and  even  Chicago.  That  region  sent  no 
more  skins  to  Montreal,  but  had  its  trade  outlet 
down  the  Mississippi.  These  traders  married 
Indian  girls,  as  is  duly  recorded  in  the  mission 
register.  In  1715  a  French  woman  came  to  Kas- 
kaskia, the  first  white  woman  to  settle  perma- 
nently in  Illinois.  Her  name  was  Francoisc  Le 
Brise.  She  could  not  write  her  name,  but  this 
the  mission  priests  did  for  her  when  she  affixed 
her  mark  as  witness  at  weddings  and  acted  as 
godmother  at  the  christening  of  Indian  babies. 

Valiant  Francoise  Le  Brise!  She  had  no 
doubt  come  to  far-away  Kaskaskia  from  Mon 
treal,  traversing  hundreds  of  leagues  of  woods 


and  prairies  and  wild  waters,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  a  missionary  or  trader  uncle  or  brother. 
Society  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  Illinois 
with  the  advent  of  Francoise  Le  Brise.  You 
may  be  assured  that  it  was  laid  upon  the  squaws 
to  make  soap  of  wood-ashes,  lye  and  animal  fat, 
to  wash  Francoise 's  linen  and  the  priests'  vest- 
ments in  the  clear  water  of  the  Okaw,  and  to 
hang  the  "Monday  wash"  on  the  hazel  bushes 
to  bleach  and  dry.  Francoise  was  a  capable 
woman  with  true  public  spirit.  She  married  at 
last  a  bold  trader  named  Jean  Potier  and 
brought  up  a  family  of  children  to  be  a  credit  to 
Kaskaskia.  Her  popularity  is  attested  by  the 
frequency  with  which  her  mark  appears  in  the 
parish  register  long  after  there  were  plenty  of 
grander  folk  in  Kaskaskia  who  were  able  to 
sign  their  titled  names  with  a  lavish  use  of  ink 
on  the  flourishes. 

The  Mississippi  Bubble.  For  eighteen  years 
Kaskaskia  basked  in  the  sunshine  on  the  green 
peninsula,  its  peace  and  silence  unbroken  by  war- 
whoop  or  gunshot  or  rumor  of  the  world  without. 
Then,  one  morning  in  June,  1718,  missionaries 
and  traders  and  Indians  were  startled  by  the 
boom  of  cannon  on  the  Mississippi.  At  the 
mouth  of  the  Okaw  stood  a  formidable  fleet  of 
sailing  vessels.  Troops  were  lined  up  on  the 
deck  of  the  flagship,  from  which  floated  the 
lilies  of  France,  and  officers  in  gorgeous  uniforms 
of  scarlet  and  blue  and  white  and  gold  lifted 
their  hands  in  salute  \a  their  cocked  and  plumed 
hats.  The  Sieur  Duqiie  Boisbriaut,  king's  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Illinois  country — the  first  governor 
of  Illinois — had  arrived  with  instructions  to 
build  a  fort. 

To  protect  the  mission  villages?  Ah,  no; 
something  much  grander  to  them  than  that — 
mines! 

No  one  knows  just  how  the  rumor  of  fabulous 
riches  in  the  Illinois  country  originated.  Lead 
had  been  discovered  near  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis., 
a  third  of  a  century  before,  probably  by  Father 
Hennepiu,  who  explored  the  upper  Mississippi 
for  LaSalle;  and  copper  was  found  by  Joliet  on 
Lake  Superior.  Spanish  adventurers,  coming 
from  the  settlement  of  Santa  Fe,  now  in  New 
Mexico,  had  penetrated  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  had  discovered  lead  mines  west  of 
Kaskaskia,  in  the  present  state  of  Missouri. 
These  mines  wrere  similar  to  the  argentiferous — 
or.  silver-bearing — lead  mines  of  Mexico  from 
which  the  Spaniards  had  coined  wealth. 

In  the  Natchez  country  of  Mississippi  a  semi- 
precious stone — just  one — had  been  picked  up  by 
a  French  adventurer.  Traders  who  had  been 
in  the  Illinois  Indian  villages  went  down  to 
Mobile  and  Biloxi  and  told  tales  of  the  wonder- 
ful fertility  of  the  soil  in  the  Mississippi  bot- 
tom. These  stories  reached  France,  were  en- 
larged upon  and  exaggerated.  Suddenly  all 
Paris  was  talking  of  the  Illinois  country,  whose 
soil,  it  was  declared,  rivaled  the  banks'  of  the 


19 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Nile  in  richness  and  whose  mines  were  equal  to 
those  of  Peru.  The  country  was  described  as 
bristling  with  gold,  silver  and  precious  stones! 

Every  one  was  eager  to  go  to  the  new  country 
or  to  invest  his  money  there.  At  the  moment  of 
the  greatest  excitement  John  Law,  a  Scotch 
banker  of  Paris,  came  forward  with  the  Com- 
pany of  the  West,  duly  chartered  by  King  Louis 
XV.  Millions  of  crowns '  worth  of  shares  of  this 


First    Government    House    of    Upper    Louisiana, 
Built  at  St.  Louis  (1776). 

company  were  sold,  not  only  in  Paris  but  in 
London  and  Vienna.  The  public  debt  of  France 
was  refunded  by  the  proceeds,  the  bold  promoter 
sinking  his  own  fortune  in  the  speculative  enter- 
prise which  is  spoken  of  today  as  the  ' '  Great 
Mississippi  Bubble. ' '  The  bubble  was  fifteen 
years  in  bursting,  and  during  that  time  it  daz- 
zled all  Europe  with  its  promise  of  the  wealth 
of  Golconda. 

The  Company  of  the  West  went  about  its  busi- 
ness in  a  royal  way.  King  Louis  himself,  who 
was  admitted  to  a  sort  of  partnership,  offered  to 
build  a  fort  out  of  the  public  treasury  and  to 
furnish  a  garrison  for  it.  The  troops  were  of- 
ficered by  the  proudest  nobility  of  France. 
Humble  folk — farmers,  wine  growers,  carpenters, 
masons,  ship  and  mill  wrights,  who  had  no 
money  to  invest  in  the  mines — were  offered 
grants  of  lands,  fabulous  wages  and  high  prices 
for  the  products  of  the  soil.  Food  and  clothing, 
shelter  and  service  would  be  needed  by  the 
scions  of  noble  houses  who  were  going  out  to  the 
fabled  wilderness  to  make  princely  fortunes. 

The  king's  lieutenant,  the  Sieur  de  Boisbriant, 
selected  a  site  sixteen  miles  above  Kaskaskia  on 
the  Illinois  bank  of  the  Mississippi  and  set  his 
soldiers  to  hewing  timbers  and  quarrying  stones 
for  the  largest  fort  the  French  were  ever  to 
build  in  the  United  States.  It  was  two  years 
before  the  stronghold  was  finished  and  named 
for  the  Due  de  Chartres.  The  wall,  which  in- 
closed an  area  of  more  than  four  acres,  was  built 
of  a  palisade  of  timbers,  set  in  masonry.  With- 
in were  barracks,  the  commandant's  house,  store- 
house, well,  mill,  powder  magazine  of  stone,  and 
the  great  hall  where  the  representative  of  the 
Company  of  the  West  was  for  ten  years  to  trans- 


act business  of  such  magnitude  as  to  amaze  and 
then  to  alarm  Europe. 

The  lilies  of  France  floated  from  the  bastion 
of  Fort  Chartres  and  heralded  the  arrival  of 
Philip  Francis  Renault,  director-general  of  the 
Company  of  the  West,  an  iron  founder  and 
banker  of  Paris.  He  arrived  on  a  fleet  of  sailing 
vessels  owned  by  the  company  and  brought  with 
him  more  soldiers  to  guard  the  company's  treas- 
ure; and  he  brought  miners,  settlers  and  500 
negro  slaves  from  the  French  West  Indies  to 
work  in  the  mines. 

Court  Life  in  the  Illinois  Wilderness.  The 
commandant,  the  Sieur  de  Boisbriaut,  led  a 
merry  life.  Magnificent  quarters  and  luxurious 
living  were  provided  for  the  military  officers  in 
the  fort.  Some  of  them  had  brought  their  wives 
and  mothers  and  daughters  to  form  a  court. 
Cannon  were  planted  to  command  the  river,  to 
terrorize  hostile  Indians  and  to  warn  Spaniards 
not  to  encroach  on  French  territory.  Gay  caval- 
cades of  gentlemen  and  ladies  in  velvets,  bro- 
cades, laces,  powder  and  jewels  rode  over  to 
Kaskaskia  to  attend  mass  in  the  missionary 
chapel.  The  splendor  and  gaiety  of  Versailles 
were  imitated  in  the  hunting  parties  and  in  the 
balls  and  dinners  at  the  fort.  The  mission  at 
Kaskaskia  was  raised  to  a  parish  and,  mixed 
in  with  the  births  and  deaths  and  marriages  of 
Indians,  were  recorded  in  the  parish  register 
momentous  events  in  the  lives  of  members  of 
the  old  aristocracy  of  France. 

What  a  procession  of  them  there  was  within 
the  next  forty  years! — De  Siette,  St.  Ange  de 
Bellerive,  the  gallant  young  Pierre  D'Arta- 
guette,  of  whom  a  volume  of  stories  could  be 
written;  Vinsenne,  the  elder  and  younger;  De 
Bienville,  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  De  Bertel 
and  the  Chevalier  de  Makarty.  They  were  all 
there — accompanied  by  black  robes,  tonsured 
heads,  high-born  ladies,  plumes  and  banners  and 
sabers,  and  smart  musketeers. 

The  country  began  to  be  settled  along  the 
river  for  a  distance  of  fifty  miles  between  Ca- 
hokia.  which  is  just  below  St.  Louis  on  the  Illi- 
nois side,  and  Kaskaskia.  The  village  of  Ste. 
Anne  de  Fort  Chartres  sprang  up  at  the  rustic 
gate  of  the  fort.  French  houses  were  built  of 
hewn  timbers  set  upright  in  the  ground,  the  in- 
tervals filled  in  with  stone  and  mortar  neatly 
dressed  and  washed  with  lime.  They  were  usu- 
ally a  story  and  a  half  high,  with  the  long  roof 
sloping  out  over  a  veranda  and  pierced  with 
dormers.  Longfellow  has  described  such  houses 
in  "Evangeline": 
' '  Strongly  built  were  the  houses,  with  frames 

of  oak  and  of  hemlock, 
Such  as  the  peasants  of  Normandy  built,  in  the 

reign  of  the  Henrys. 
Thatched  were  the  roofs,  with  dormer  windows, 

while   gables,   projecting 
Over  the  basement  below,  protected  and  shaded 

the  doorway; ' ' 


20 


THE 


OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Such  was  the  French  colonial  house  in  Canada, 
at  New  Orleans,  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  in 
the  French  West  Indies. 


Powder    Magazine    of    Stone    at    Fort    Chartres, 
Built  About  1750,  Still  Standing. 

The  French  Farm  Villages.  Within  five  years 
every  house  in  the  French  settlements  had  its 
picket-fenced  garden,  with  apple,  pear,  peach, 
cherry  and  plum  trees,  and  its  strawberry,  as- 
paragus and  salad-vegetable  beds.  Roses  draped 
the  veranda  pillars,  and  bulbs  and  seeds  brought 
from  France  had  taken  root  and  flourished. 
Five  villages  thus  grew  up  in  Illinois  along  the 
river.  From  each,  farms  were  laid  out  in  strips 
running  back  for  a  mile  or  more.  The  French 
cannot  endure  the  solitude  of  the  isolated  farm, 
and  this  plan  had  its  advantages.  The  tillers  of 
the  soil  could  all  be  called  to  the  village  with 
one  alarm.  Few  French  pioneers,  therefore,  fell 
victims  to  prowling  Indians,  although  the  Sacs 
and  Foxes  had  begun  to  skulk  around  the  set- 
tlements. 

This  farm-village  life,  too,  accounts  for  the 
great  number  of  social  events  that  were  held 
along  the  river.  Every  village,  as  well  as  the 
Fort,  had  its  evening  dance,  its  Spring  flower 
festival,  Fall  Nutting  parties,  and  Twelfth 
Night  ball.  The  settlers  were  Parisians.  The 
women  did  not  spin  and  dye  and  weave  and 
knit,  as  did  the  English  women  on  the  Eastern 
seaboard.  All  clothing  was  brought  from  Paris, 
and  the  wives  and  daughters  of  these  gay  pion- 
eers were  richly  appareled. 

Life  was  not  so  gay  for  Director-General 
Eenault.  It  was  his  business  to  find  the  gold 
and  silver  mines  and  diamond  deposits  of  the 
Illinois  country,  so  that  dividends  could  be  paid 
on  the  millions  of  crowns'  worth  of  shares  that 
had  been  floated  in  the  capitals  of  Europe. 
Where  was  he  to  look  for  them? 

France,  at  that  time,  claimed  both  banks  of 
the  Mississippi.  And  the  "Illinois  country"  in- 
cluded Missouri  and  a  portion  of  Iowa  and  Wis- 
consin, as  well  as  the  Illinois  of  today.  The 
lead-mining  district  of  Galena  and  Prairie  du 
Chien  was  known,  but  that  region  swarmed 
with  Sacs  and  Foxes  and  had  a  fringe  of  fierce 


Sioux  to  the  west.  Besides,  the  lead-mines  of 
Missouri  were  believed  to  overlie  beds  of  silver. 
From  the  ramparts  of  Fort  Chartres,  the  low 
mountains  of  mineral  formation  could  be  seen 
along  the  western  sky  line.  It  was  in  these 
mountains  that  Renault  hoped  to  realize  the 
belief  on  which  the  Company  of  the  West  had 
been  founded. 

To  supply  his  mines  with  provisions,  Renault 
laid  out  the  village  of  St.  Philip,  five  miles 
north  of  Fort  Chartres.  Here,  in  what  is  now 
Monroe  county,  Illinois,  he  had  a  large  grant 
of  land.  His  village  consisted  of  sixteen  farm 
houses  and  farms,  a  gristmill,  and  a  chapel. 
With  a  base  of  supplies  at  his  back  he  crossed 
the  Mississippi  with  his  mining  expert,  M.  La 
Motte,  and  went  prospecting. 

The  Bursting  of  the  Bubble.  It  is  believed 
that  Renault  and  La  Motte  went  over  the  en- 
tire lead-mining  region  of  Missouri.  Traces  of 
their  diggings  are  found  today,  overgrown  with 
brush  and  trees,  around  Potosi,  Old  Mines,  Re- 
nault, in  the  St.  Francis  river  district  and  around 
Iron  Mountain.  Lead  they  found  everywhere, 
and  of  zinc  they  must  have  found  traces.  Beds 
of  coal  and  iron  ore  were  laid  bare,  but  of  silver 
and  gold  and  precious  stones  they  found  none. 
Vast  sums  of  money  melted  away  like  snow,  and 
the  Illinois  country  had  not  treasures  with 
which  to  replace  the  enormous  sums  that  had 
been  expended.  In  1731  the  Company  of  the 
West  failed  and  surrendered  its  charter  to  the 
king. 

No  Gold  Fields  but  Fie] is 
of  Golden  Grain.  But, 
strange  to  relate,  the  Illi- 
nois country  itself  was 
prosperous  and  no  longer 
needed  the  company.  "The 
settlers,"  as  Governor  Rey- 
nolds, one  of  the  early  gov- 
ernors of  Illinois  says, 
quaintly  in  his  history  of 
the  state,  "had  begun  by 
this  time  to  draw  on  that 
old  bank  Mother  Earth,  who  never  yet  refused 
to  honor  the  drafts  of  labor  and  enterprise." 
There  were  no  mines  of  gold  in  that  region, 
but  there  were  broad  fields  of  golden  grain. 

M.  Paget  had  built  a  water-mill  on  the  Okaw 
where  it  fell  foaming  down  the  bluff  above  Kas- 
kaskia.  Wheat  and  flour  and  pork  were  now 
sent  down  the  river  to  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
that  had  sprung  up  amid  the  jungle  of  cane- 
brakes  on  the  river;  and  when  the  forts  at  Mo- 
bile and  Biloxi  had  also  been  supplied  the  sail- 
ing vessels  went  on  to  discharge  their  cargoes  at 
the  ports  of  San  Domingo  and  Martinique.  The 
Illinois  country  came  to  be  called  "the  granary 
of  the  French  West  Indies." 


JOHN  LAW. 


THE    STOEY   OF   CHICAGO   AND   NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


What  of  Renault .'  He  was  not  a  man  to  ad- 
mit defeat,  -his  first  captain  of  industry  in  Illi- 
nois. When  the  charter  of  the  Company  of  the 
West  was  surrendered  Renault  secured  in  his 
own  name  a  grant  of  the  laud  on  which  was  his 
village  of  St.  Philip,  and  the  lead  mines  at  the 
headwaters  of  the  St.  Francis  river.  The  mines 
he  named  La  Motte,  for  his  faithful  mineralo- 
gist, in  whom  you  may  see  the  qualities  of 
Tonty  repeated.  Together  they  worked  this  rich 
region,  bringing  up  the  ore  by  hand  labor  and 
smelting  it  in  open  clay  furnaces.  No  manufac- 
turing of  lead  was  attempted.  The  "pigs"  of 
metal  were  sent  to  Fort  Chartres  to  be  run  into 
bullets  to  supply  the  French  forts  on  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi. 

Of  bullets  there  had  begun  to  be  need.  Built 
to  protect  mines  that  never  existed,  Fort  Chartres 
was  maintained  to  develop  a  rich  agricultural 
country.  Not  a  shot  was  ever  directed  against 
its  walls,  but  the  French  settlers  along  the  river 
\.ere  threatened  with  extermination  by  the  Sacs 
and  Foxes  from  the  north  and  by  the  Chicka- 
saws  from  Arkansas. 

"In  the  Days  of  D'Artaguette."  This  was 
the  state  of  affairs  when  the  gallant  Pierre  D  'Ar- 
taguette  arrived  in  1734  to  take  command  of 
Fort  Chartres.  Much  was  expected  of  him,  for 
he  had  won  such  renown  in  fights  with  the 
Natchez  Indians  in  Mississippi  that  the  river 
still  ri»gs  with  his  name.  In  old  steamboat 
days  Mark  Twain  somewhere  speaks  of  the 
negro  boatmen  as  singing  a  chorus  which  ran: 

"In  the   days  of  D'Artaguette,  yo   ho!" 

When  he  arrived  at  Fort  Chartres  D'Arta- 
guette wrote  to  the  French  commandant  at 
Green  Bay,  Wis.,  that  he  hoped  to  meet  him  and 
the  officer  in  command  at  Detroit,  either  at  the 
Rock  of  St.  Louis  or  at  the  Chicagou  portage,  to 
devise  some  plan  for  exterminating  the  Sacs  and 
Foxes  and  to  open  up  communication  with  Mon- 
treal again  by  way  of  Chicagou.  He  advised 
that  a  fort  be  built  for  this  conference.  The 
commandant  of  Green  Bay  replied  that  such  an 
end  was  very  much  to  be  desired,  but  he  feared 
that  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  would  do  the  extermi- 
nating and  not  the  French. 

Had  D'Artaguette  lived  Chicagou  portage 
might  have  been  opened  sixty  years  before  it 
was.  As  it  happened  the  Chickasaws  threat- 
ened the  peace  of  the  Illinois  country  more  im- 
mediately, and  the  young  commander  marched 
against  them.  In  a  fleet  of  bateaux  and  canoes 
he  embarked  nearly  all  the  garrison  of  Fort 
Chartres.  Volunteers  from  the  French  villages 
and  from  Green  Bay  and  Detroit  joined  him. 
The  younger  Vinsenne  came  to  his  help  with 
the  garrisons  of  Fort  Vincennes  and  Fort  Ouata- 
non  on  the  Wabash.  Chief  Chicago  lead  the 
Illinois  and  Miami  Indian  allies,  and  troops  were 
to  reinforce  the  party  from  New  Orleans. 

Those  gallant  young  Frenchmen  never  came 
back.  The  troops  from  New  Orleans  failed  tc 


appear  and  the  Chickasaws  had  mustered  their 
savage  allies  by  the  thousands.  A  boy  of  sixteen 
led  the  survivors  back  to  Fort  Chartres.  D'Ar- 
taguette, Vinsenne  the  son,  young  St.  Ange — all 
who  survived  the  battle  and  were  taken  pris- 
oners— were  burned  at  the  stake.  A  bell  was 
tolled  in  Kaskaskia  when  masses  were  said  for 
their  souls.  It  was  the  first  bell  ever  rung  in 
the  Mississippi  valley.  Cast  in  Rochelle,  France, 
it  was  hung  in  the  chapel  in  Kaskaskia  in  1741. 

Halcyon  days  now  began  for  the  Illinois  coun- 
try. There  was  a  new  garrison  and  commandant 
at  Fort  Chartres,  and  the  younger  sons  of  noble 
families  began  to  arrive  to  take  up  grants  of 
land.  These  five  French  villages  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, of  which  I  have  already  spoken,  had,  in 
1750,  1,100  white  inhabitants  and  300  black 
slaves,  besides  the  still  numerous  tribes  of  the 
Illinois.  Twice  each  year  fleets  convoyed  by 
an  armed  cruiser,  and  numbering  forty  vessels, 
loaded  with  grain,  flour,  pork,  lead  and  furs, 
went  down  to  New  Orleans. 

The  Illinois  French  and  the  War  with  Eng- 
land. But  now  there  were  rumors  of  the  coming 
war  with  England,  to  be  known  in  history  as 
the  French  and  Indian  War.  The  French  had 
forts  stretching  from  Nova  Scotia  to  New  Or- 
leans. Louisburg,  Quebec,  Montreal,  Frontenac 
and  Niagara,  Sandusky  and  Detroit  were  all  for- 
tified on  the  lower  lakes,  and  the  upper  lake 
region  was  held  by  forts  at  Mackinac,  the  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  Green  Bay  and  St.  Joseph.  On  the 
present  site  of  Pittsburg  was  Fort  Duquesne, 


FRENCH  SETTLEMENTS  IN  ILLINOIS. 
"From  the  ramparts  of  Fort  Chartres  the  low 
mountains   of  mineral   formation   could   be   seen 
along   the   western   sky   line. ' ' 

guarding  the  headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  The  Wa- 
bash was  defended  by  Fort  Ouatanon,  near  the 
portage,  and  by  Fort  Vinsenne.  Fort  Chartres 
commanded  the  reaches  of  the  middle  Missis. 


22 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


sippi,  and  down  the  river  were  forts  in  Arkansas 
and  Mississippi  and  at  Mobile  and  Biloxi.  La 
Salle's  dream  of  empire  was  being  realized. 

The  only  missing  links  of  that  splendid  chain 
of  defenses  were  those  he  himself  had  forged 
across  the  wilderness  of  northern  Illinois.  The 
forts  at  Chicago,  the  Eock  of  St.  Louis  and 
Peoria  had  be^n  rebuilt.  This  did  not  weaken 
the  chain,  however,  for  that  '  region  was  de- 
fended against  all  comers,  French  and  British 
alike,  by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  and  in  it  the 
French  still  had  their  hardy  traders. 

No  one  was  more  alarmed  by  all  this  activity 
of  the  French  in  the  interior  than  Governor  Din- 
widdie  of  Virginia,  for  Virginia  colony  claimed 
much  of  this  territory  under  its  old  "sea-to-sea" 
charter.  Eich  planters  of  Virginia  had  formed 
the  Ohio  Company  and  obtained  a  large  grant  of 
land  west  of  the  Monongahela  which  they  pro- 
posed to  settle.  Governor  Dinwiddie  therefore 
sent  young  George  Washington  with  a  letter  to 
the  commandant  at  Fort  Duquesne  (Pittsburg), 
asking  the  French  to  vacate  territory  claimed  by 
Virginia.  The  reply  was  not  reassuring;  in 
fact.  Virginia  was  notified  that  if  the  French 
were  dislodged  it  would  be  only  by  war.  This 
news  of  the  demand  of  Virginia  aroused  the 
French  settlements  in  Illinois  to  fury.  It  was 
bad  enough  for  the  king  of  England  to  lay  claim 
to  the  Mississippi  valley — which  the  French  had 
discovered,  explored  and  settled — just  because 
Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  had  discovered  the  shore  of 
Virginia;  but  for  the  colony  of  Virginia  to  pro- 
pose to  take  the  fruit  of  all  their  labor  was  not 
to  be  endured. 

Fort  Chartres,  in  Illinois,  was  the  central  link 
in  the  chain  of  forts.  It  was  in  the  heart  of  the 
territory  claimed  by  Virginia,  and  it  was  in 
the  middle  of  a  rich  region  that  every  year  be- 
came more  thickly  settled.  New  Orleans,  with 
its  more  than  a  thousand  white  people,  depended 
upon  Illinois  for  grain.  Into  Louisiana  in  the 
year  1750  sugar-cane  and  cotton  were  intro- 
duced, and  the  plantations  were  cultivated  by 
negro  slaves.  Excitement  became  intense  when 


some  Englishmen  were  captured  along  the  river 
and  confined  as  spies  in  the  dungeon  of  Fort 
Chartres.  Commandant  de  Bertel  called  fran- 
tically for  reinforcements. 

France  did  better  than  merely  to  send  rein- 
forcements. In  1750  the  Chevalier  de  Makarty 
arrived,  not  only  with  soldiers  but  with  orders 
to  rebuild  Fort  Chartres  in  solid  masonry.  After 
the  work  was  finished  Fort  Chartres  was  de- 
scribed in  the  records  as  having  walls  of  stone 
eighteen  feet  high,  with  forty-eight  loopholes  in 
the  corner  bastions.  Stairways,  arched  gate, 
platforms  for  mounting  cannon,  embrasures, 
sentry-box,  storehouse,  guardhouse,  chapel  and 
coachhouse  were  all  of  cut  stone,  and  there  were 
besides  within  the  inclosure  two  stone  barracks, 
a  powder  magazine,  wells,  bakehouses  and  cells 
for  prisoners. 

"Now!"  said  the  Chevalier  de  Makarty,  when 
the  work  was  completed;  "Let  England  and 
Virginia  come  and  take  the  Illinois  country  if 
they  can. ' ' 

Illinois  Defeats  Virginia  and  "Monsieur  de 
Wachenston. "  In  the  first  engagement  of  the 
war  a  young  captain  from  Fort  Chartres,  Nyon 
de  Villiers,  who  took  a  company  of  French 
troops  and  Indian  allies  up  the  Ohio  and  across 
the  Monongahela  and  a  spur  of  the  Alleghanies, 
compelled  Monsieur  de  Wachenston  (Georgo 
Washington)  to  surrender  Fort  Necessity.  As 
an  act  of  grace  De  Villiers  permitted  his  foe, 
who  was  to  become  so  illustrious,  to  march  out 
with  drums  beating  and  flags  flying. 

What  a  story  to  tell  his  children  when  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  later  sons  of  the  proudest  houses 
in  France  were  to  enlist  and  fight  under  the  ban- 
ner of  this  same  "Monsieur  de  Wachenston"! 

But  now  at  Fort  Chartres  was  celebrated  this 
victory  of  Illinois  over  Virginia.  Immediately 
nine  tons  of  flour  were  loaded  on  flatboats  at 
Kaskaskia  and  started  over  the  Ohio  river  to 
Fort  Duquesne  to  feed  French  troops.  For  six 
years  the  Illinois  country  was  to  furnish  an  un- 
failing supply  of  foodstuffs,  lead  for  bullets,  and 
soldiers,  to  hold  Louisiana  for  the  French  flag. 


LILIES  OF  FRANCE. 
(1682-1763.) 


THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 
(Unfurled  1778.) 

CHAPTER  IV. 


CROSS  OF  ST.  GEORGE. 
(1763-1778.) 


UNDER  THREE  FLAGS. 
(1754-1803.) 

The  Story  Thus  Far. — In  the  year  1700, 
Tonty,  the  last  of  the  four  early  French  explor- 
ers who  passed  through  Chicago,  disappeared 
from  the  region.  He  went  down  to  Mobile  to 
help  d'Iberville  fortify  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
The  Illinois  Indian  tribes,  unable  longer  to  with- 
stand their  enemies,  migrated  to  the  Mississippi 
bottom,  below  St.  Louis.  They  were  accompa- 
nied by  missionaries  and  traders.  In  1718  John 
Law,  a  Scotch  banker  of  Paris,  formed  his 
famous  Company  of  the  West  to  develop  the 
alleged  mines  of  precious  metals  in  the  Illinois 
country.  Fort  Chartres  was  built  sixty  miles 
below  the  present  site  of  St.  Louis  to  protect  the 
country  and  the  five  French  villages  which  grew 
up  along  the  river.  Only  lead  mines  were  found 
(in  Missouri),  and  the  "Mississippi  Bubble" 
burst.  But  by  that  time  the  soil  was  producing 
great  crops  of  grain  which  were  sold  in  Mar- 
tinique and  San  Domingo,  so  that  the  Illinois 
country  was  spoken  of  as  "the  granary  of  the 
French  West  Indies. ' '  Virginia  colony,  how- 
ever, under  its  "sea  to  sea"  charter,  claimed  all 
this  territory  which  had  been  colonized  by  the 
French,  and  began  the  French  and  Indian  war. 
The  French  had  forts  strung  along  the  water- 
ways, which  then  formed  the  highways  of  travel 
in  the  interior,  from  Nova  Scotia  to  New  Or- 
leans. From  Kaskaskia  and  Fort  Chartres  were 
sent  flower,  pork,  and  lead  for  bullets,  as  well 
as  soldiers  to  defend  the  territory  of  France  in 
a  war  for  the  possession  of  the  North  American 
continent,  for  Great  Britain  backed  up  the  claims 
of  Virginia. 

"New  France"  Passes  Into  English  Hands. — 
The  French  and  Indian  war,  which  began  be- 
tween the  French  and  the  colony  of  Virginia  in 
1754,  for  the  possession  of  the  Ohio  river  valley, 
was  continued,  after  1756,  between  England  and 
France,  in  both  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  It 


was  understood  by  everyone  concerned  that  the 
struggle  was  for  the  ownership  of  the  continent 
of  North  America. 

In  America,  the  French  stood  on  the  defensive 
with  their  line  of  forts  stretched  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  New  Orleans.  Not  only  was  Fort 
Chartres  in  the  Illinois  country  rebuilt  of  stone 
and  twenty  cannon  mounted  on  its  walls,  but  the 
great  fortress  of  Louisburg  at  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  on  Cape  Breton  Island,  and  the 
defenses  of  Montreal  and  Quebec  were  made, 
what  was  fondly  believed,  impregnable.  Upon 
Fort  Duquesne  (at  Pittsburg),  Vanango  and  Le 
Bouf  on  the  Allegheny,  and  Presque  Isle  where 
Erie,  Pennsylvania,  now  stands,  depended  the 
keeping  open  of  the  Ohio  trade  route  between 
New  France  and  Louisiana. 

To  British  troops  and  New  England  and  Vir- 
ginia volunteers,  was  left  the  task  of  cutting 
through  the  tangled  forest,  climbing  the  wild 
mountain  ranges,  and  breasting-  the  broad  rivers 
that  separated  the  colonies  of  the  two  nations. 
The  French  were  commanded  by  Montcalm,  "the 
very  ablest  Frenchman  that  ever  commanded  on 
this  continent,"  as  McMaster  says.  When  Mont- 
calm  had  burned  Oswego,  New  York,  and  had 
won  over  even  the  Iroquois  tribes  to  the  French 
cause  or  to  neutrality,  the  astutest  observer  of 
the  time  vould  scarcely  have  ventured  to  pre- 
dict that,  within  four  years  France  was  to  lose 
the  vast  empire  in  America  upon  which  she 
seemed  to  have  so  firm  a  hold. 

We  cannot  go  into  all  the  reasons  for  the  final 
triumph  of  British  arms,  but,  1758,  the  tide  of 
fortune  suddenly  turned.  Louisburg  was  sur- 
rendered. Fort  Frontenac,  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Ontario,  which  you  will  remember  was  built  by 
La  Salle,  eighty  years  before,  and  mortgaged  to 
supply  funds  for  his  explorations  in  the  West, 
was  taken  by  colonials  from  New  England. 
Simultaneously  Fort  Duquesne  was  captured  by 
Virginians  under  Washington  and  named  Fort 
Pitt  (Pittsburg).  At  one  stroke  Quebec  and  the 


24 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Ohio  valley  lost  their  defenses,  and  New  France 
was  cut  off  from  Louisiana. 

A  year  later  Quebec  was 
surrendered  to  the  British 
after  that  famous  fight  on  the 
Heights  of  Abraham,  iu  which 
Montcalm  and  Wolfe  both  re- 
ceived mortal  wounds,  men 
whom,  for  other  qualities, 
aside  from  their  military  abil- 
ity, the  world  could  ill  spare. 
Montreal  fell  in  1760,  and  the 
British  very  soon  afterward 
occupied  all  the  old  French 
forts  back  to  Detroit,  and  be- 
gan to  trade  with  and,  as 
Parkman  declares,  "to  irri- 
tate the  Indians." 

The    war    in    America    was 
In  Europe  it  dragged 


about  Fort  Chartres  and  along  the  river,  a  whitu 


THE  PIEREE  MENAED  HOTJSE  AT  KASKASKIA. 
A  Typical  French  Colonial   Mansion. 


on  for  three  years.  France  was  so  badly  whipped 
that  Great  Britain  dictated  the  terms  of  peace. 
As  if  anxious  to  be  done  with  colonies  in  Amer- 
ica, once  and  for  all  time,  France  divided  her 
colonial  possessions,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
islands  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  in 
the  West  Indies,  between  England  and  Spain. 
The  Mississippi  river  became  a  new  boundary 
line,  Spain  retaining  the  mouth  of  the  river  and 
all  the  territory  to  the  westward.  The  terms  of 
the  treaty  of  peace  came  like  a  thunder  clap  out 
of  a  clear  sky  to  New  Orleans,  Fort  Chartres, 
and  the  French  villages  in  the  Illinois  country. 
The  war  had  scarcely  affected  the  colony  of 
Louisiana,  for,  to  be  cut  off  from  Montreal  was 
not  a  hardship  to  settlements  whose  highway 
to  the  ocean  had  long  been  the  Mississippi. 

From  Fort  Chartres  three  expeditions  had 
been  sent  out,  and  its  soldiers  had  shared  in  the 
victories  of  the  early  part  of  the  war. 

Fleet  after  fleet  of  flat  boats,  loaded  with 
flour,  pork,  and  lead,  had  been  sent  by  way 
of  the  Ohio  to  sustain  the  French  troops  in  the 
forts  along  the  St.  Lawrence  until  the  capture 
of  Fort  Duquesne.  After  that  time  the  forts 
on  the  Wabash  and  on  the  lower  Mississippi 
were  supplied.  Every  post  in  Louisiana  could 
have  withstood  a  long  siege,  but  the  British 
made  no  attempt  to  occupy  the  country  or  to 
take  a  military  expedition  south  or  west  of 
Detroit. 

No  British  fleet  appeared  before  New  Orleans. 
The  reaches  of  the  wilderness  drained  by  the 
Mississippi  were  too  vast  to  be  compassed  and, 
indeed,  there  is  no  evidence  that  England  was 
aware  of  all  that  had  been  accomplished  around 
Fort  Chartres,  500  miles  back  of  Detroit  and 
1,200  miles  above  New  Orleans— a  long  voyage 
up  from  a  Gulf  on  which  British  ships  had  never 
explored  or  traded. 

Because   of   their   isolation   and   the    strength 


population  of  2,000  farmers,  traders,  priests, 
nobles,  artisans,  and  mining  operators.  There 
was  little  money  in  circulation  but  their  wheat, 
pork,  lead,  and  furs  were  paid  for  in  the  luxu- 
ries of  France.  Their  farms,  gardens,  orchards, 
the  results  of  the  chase  brought  in  by  the  In- 
dians, and  the  cattle  grazing  on  the  common 
fields  that  had  been  given  to  each  village  by 
royal  grant,  kept  their  tables  abundantly  sup- 
plied. Slaves  did  all  their  labor.  These,  with 
the  docile,  dependent  Indians,  reproduced  a  con- 
dition of  feudalism  most  flattering  to  the  French 
seigneurs  of  the  soil.  The  loss  of  New  France 
was  a  puzzle  to  them,  but  the  British  were 
evidently  afraid  to  carry  their  pretensions  into 
Louisiana.  It  became  somewhat  the  fashion  at 
JCaskaskia  to  sneer  at  the  enemy  of  France. 
The  news  of  the  cession  of  Eastern  Louisiana, 
as  well  as  New  France,  to  Great  Britain,  was 
therefore  received  with  incredulity,  disgust,  and 
dismay.  In  the  village  of  Cahokia  the  an- 
nouncement brought  also  care. 

To  the  hamlet  of  Cahokia,  which  lay  farthest 
north  of  all  the  French  settlements  in  Illinois, 
had  come,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  eight 
years  before,  a  band  of  refugees  from  Acadia. 
The  story  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Acadians  from 
Nova  Scotia,  is  told  in  "  Evangeline."  The 
British  were  not  wholly  without  excuse  nor  the 
French  wholly  without  blame,  as  the  poem  repre- 
sents, but  the  work  was  done  with  heedless 
cruelty,  and  the  incident,  as  a  whole,  is  a  fit 
subject  for  Longfellow's  genius. 

Many  of  these  simple,  disheartened  people  who 
had  thus  been  ruined  and  bereft  of  kindred  and 
France,  had  found  new  homes  in  New  Orleans 
and  along  the  Mississippi,  in  the  numerous  scat- 
tered settlements  of  France.  Those  who  reached 
the  Illinois  country  went  past  Kaskaskia,  where 
the  gaiety  and  prosperity  of  the  French  capital 
was  ill-suited  to  their  sad  heart  and  fallen  for- 


of   their  fort   the   French    villages    in    Illinois    tunes,  and  settled  at  Cahokia,  fifty  miles  further 
dwelt    in   fancied   security.       There   was    now.    up  the  river. 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


PIERRE 
LACLEDE. 


In  her  search  for  Gabriel,  Evangeliiie,  if  such 
a  person  really  lived,  jimst  have  visited  this 
refuge  of  the  Acadiaus  iii  Illinois.  Longfellow 
has  described  her  wanderings  up  and  down  the 
.  Mississippi,  ' '  past  the  Ohio 's 
mouth,"  westward  across  the 
mining  region  of  the  Ozarks 
Missouri,  and  nort'ieast- 
Iward,  up  the  Ohio  and  Wa- 
bash,  past  the  fort  at  Detroit, 
and  into  the  Ottawa  country 
around  Saginaw,  Michigan. 
How  eloquent  that  story  of 
her  wanderings  is  of  the  en- 
tire possession  the  French  had 
of  the  Mississippi,  Ohio  and 
[St.  Lawrence  valleys!  Priest 
land  trader  and  seigneur, 
Icoureur  du  bois  and  friendly 
[Indian  watched  over  the  foot- 
[steps  of  that  forlorn  demoi- 
Fselle,  and  aided  her  in  her 
hopeless  search  for  her  lover. 
At  no  later  pioneer  period 
could  a  young  girl  safely  have  made  such  a 
journey. 

Among  other  places  she  must  have  paused  in 
Cahokia,  Illinois,  and  there,  amid  the  fallen  and 
unlettered  stones  which  lie  to-day  in  the  Cath- 
olic  cemetery, 
"Sat  by  some  nameless  grave  and  thought  that 

perhaps  in  its  bosom. 

He  was  already  at  rest  and  she  longed  to  slum- 
ber beside  him." 

Many  of  the  people  of  Kaskaskia  crossed  the 
river  and  settled  at  Ste.  Genevieve  in  Missouri, 
preferring  to  live  under  Spanish  rather  than 
British  rule.  Neyon  de  Villiers,  who  then  com- 
manded at  Fort  Chartres,  took  the  first  boat  for 
New  Orleans  and  went  back  to  France.  St. 
Ange  de  Bellerive  and  other  French  officers, 
an-1  the  garrison  of  Fort  Chartres  to  the  number 
of  forty,  marched  out,  leaving  twenty  cannon 
mounted  and  the  lilies  of  France  floating  over 
the  bastion  for  the  soldiers  of  King  George  to 
take  down.  They  crossed  the  river  just  above 
Cahokia,  the  Acadians  following,  and  taking 
with  them  all  their  possessions  even  to  the 
frames  and  clapboarding  of  their  houses. 

There,  on  a  wooded  bluff  which  faced  the  ris- 
ing instead  of  the  setting  sun,  Pierre  Laclede 
and  Pierre  Chouteau  had  begun  to  trade  with 
the  Indians  at  a  point  which  they  had  named 
St.  Louis,  and  to  which  they  had  invited  the  dis- 
contented French  of  Illinois  to  settle.  This 
migration  gave  St.  Louis  its  first  "boom." 
There  were  soon  storehouses  and  forty  private 
dwellings  in  the  place,  and  a  military  force  was 
organized.  In  the  next  year  the  Spanish  author- 
ities made  St.  Louis  the  capital  of  Upper  Louisi- 
ana and  St.  Ange  de  Bellerive  its  first  governor. 
The  Great  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac.— Although 
the  French  garrison  had  thus  abandoned  Fort 
Chartres,  the  British  did  not  take  possession  of 


it  for  two  years.  Poutiac,  chief  of  the  Ottawa;- 
— an  Algonquin  tribe — barred  the  way.  Behind 
him  was  the  tradition  of  a  century  and  a  half  of 
unbroken  friendship  with  the  French,  and  he- 
could  not  endure  to  see  them  dispossessed. 

On  his  island  home  in  the  St.  Clair  river, 
above  Detroit,  Pontiac  brooded  over  the  results 
of  the  war.  He  argued,  too,  that  having  driven 
out  the  French,  the  British  would  next  drive  out 
the  red  man.  There  was  much  in  the  attitude  of 
the  British  garrisons,  then  occupying  the  old 
French  forts,  to  fill  the  Indians  with  hatred 
and  alarm.  Contempt  and  neglect  were  now 
dealt  out  to  the  tribes  which  had  known  only 
honor,  affection,  and  paternal  care  from  the 
French. 

Pontiae  had  courage,  sagacity,  endurance,  an<5 
eloquence,  beside  the  duplicity  and  cruelty  of 
the  savage,  to  fit  him  for  his  task  of  organizing 
the  tribes  of  the  West  against  British  occupa- 
tion. He  journeyed  from  Lake  Champlain  to 
Lake  Superior  and  from  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to 
New  Orleans,  exhorting  the  tribes.  All  the  Al- 
gonquins  came  under  his  banner,  beside  the 
Natchez,  Shawanoes,  and  even  the  Senecas,  one 
of  the  tribes  of  the  Iroquois. 

Within  six  months — May  to  December  of  1763 
— Pontiac  recaptured  all  the  old  French  forts 
except  Niagara,  Fort  Pitt,  and  Detroit.  The 
British  got  them  back  again,  but  Pontiac  was 
not  conquered.  He  retreated  across  Illinois  to 
make  a  last  stand  before  Fort  Chartres,  in  the 
same  month  that  the  French  garrison  marcheu 


3ROUND  PLAN  OF  FORT  CHARTRES. 

One   Wall   Was   Washed   Away   by   a   Mississippi 

River   Flood  in   1772. 

out  voluntarily  and  retired  to  St.  Louis. 

Three  separate  expeditions  were  sent  by  the 
British  to  take  formal  possesion  of  Fort  Char- 
tres, but  King  Pontiac  refused  to  capituHto. 
For  two  years  the  Illinois  country  was  witl  out 
any  civilized  rule.  At  the  entreaty  of  tlu- 
French  villages,  St.  Ange  came  down  from  Tt. 
Louis  to  Fort  Chartres,  and  restored  his  gen  tic 
despotism.  Poutiac,  thinking  that  France  had 
returned  to  its  own  once  more,  brought  his  re,! 

26 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


warriors  to  the  fort,  where  the  lilies  still  floated 
above  the  bastion.  St.  Ange  told  the  chief  that 
it  was  all  over.  No  resistance  was  offered  when, 
one  day,  a  company  of  Highlanders,  of  the 
famous  "Black  Watch,"  in  Tartan  kilts,  bare 
legs,  sporrans,  and  plumed  helmets,  marched  in, 
with  a  shrieking  bag-piper  at  their  head,  and 
raised  the  cross  of  St.  George  over  Fort  Chartres. 

But  Pontiac  drove  a  hard  bargain  with  the 
British.  Because  of  his  long  and  stubborn  re- 
sistance, he  secured  for  the  red  men  the  country 
won  from  the  French.  The  English  seaboard 
colonies  were  startled  by  the  royal  proclamation 
that  the  vast  region  running  westward  from  the 
crest  of  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Mississippi,  and 
including  all  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  upper 
St.  Lawrence  basins,  had  been  turned  over  to 
Pontiac,  and  closed  to  settlement  by  the  whites. 

How  Pontiac  Helped  to  Bring  on  the  Kevolu- 
tion. — No  single  event  since  the  original  settle- 
ment and  division  of  territory  in  America  among 
colonizing  European  nations,  proved  to  be  of  as 
profound  importance  as  this  treaty  of  peace  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  the  Northwestern  In- 
dians. For  the  first  time,  England  recognized 
the  power  of  the  red  man  and  made  concessions 
to  him.  This  policy  she  was  to  continue  during 
the  next  fifty  years.  From  a  bitter  and  relent- 
less foe,  the  Indian  was  turned  into  a  paid  ally 
of  Great  Britain  against  her  own  colonies  in  the 
Revolutionary  war;  and,  until  after  the  war  of 
1812,  the  red  man,  at  British  instigation,  was  to 
oppose  his  savage  tactics  against  the  settle- 
ments of  the  Great  West. 

For  this  alliance  with  the  savage,  England 
paid  the  price  of  the  loss  of  her  .American 
colonies.  You  will  remember  that  it  was  Vir- 
ginia which  began  the  French  and  Indian  war  in 
trying  to  establish  her  charter  rights  to  lands 
in  the  Ohio  valley  that  were  held  by  the  French. 
Now,  by  this  treaty  with  Pontiac,  her  claims 
were  ignored. 

The  seeds  of  discontent  were  thus  sown  in 
Virginia,  and  the  sense  of  injustice  was  intensi- 
fied when  parliament  laid  stamp  duties  on  the 
colonies  for  the  defense  of  a  frontier  they  were 
forbidden  to  cross.  Heretofore  the  colonial  as 
semblies  had  opposed  taxes  and  raised  revenues 
for  the  king,  but  parliament  had  never  before 
levied  internal  taxes  in  the  colonies.  It  was  in 
1765,  the  very  year  British  troops  entered  Fort 
Chartres,  that  Patrick  Henry  raised  the  battle 
cry  of  the  Revolution  in  the  House  of  Burgesses 
of  Virginia: 

"Taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny." 

Pioneers  Ignore  the  King's  Proclamation. — 
And  do  you  think  that  the  king's  proclamation 
that  no  settlements  were  to  be  made  west  of 
the  Alleghanies  checked  the  emigration  that 
had  just  begun  to  flow  westward?  No.  The 
hearty  frontiersmen,  who  had  fought  their  way 
to  the  mountain  crest,  cared  no  more  for  a  royal 
proclamation  than  they  did  for  the  bark  of  the 


gray  wolf  at  their  cabin  doors  in  the  wilderness. 
Settlers  began  to  pour  into  the  Indian  country, 
down  the  Ohio  into  Kentucky,  and  through  Cum- 
berland Gap  into  Tennessee.  In  1769  Wheeling, 
West  Virginia,  was  founded,  and  Daniel  Boone 
reached  Kentucky.  Within  a  few  years  he  had 
fortified  Boonsboro,  and  George  Rogers  Clark 
had  another  outpost  at  Harrodsburg. 

"New  France"  Changes  Masters  Again. — 
When  the  first  shot  was  fired  in  the  Revolution- 
ary war,  Col.  John  Tod,  who  was  with  Clark, 
named  another  cluster  of  cabins,  in  the  blue  grass 
region  of  Kentucky,  Lexington,  in  honor  of  the 
first  battle-field  of  the  patriots  of  New  England. 
Clark  forthwith  organized  Kentucky  into  a 
county  of  Virginia,  fortified  Harrodsburg  and 
formed  a  plan  to  capture  Kaskaskia  and  Vin- 
cennes  from  the  British. 

It  was  very  important  that  this  should  be 
done,  for  the  British,  in  their  anxiety  to  nip 
the  Revolution  in  the  bud,  were  inciting  the 
Indians  to  fall  upon  the  frontiers  of  the  rebel- 
lious colonies.  This  patriot  in  Kentucky  felt  it 
to  be  his  special  mission  to  put  a  stop  to  that 
dastardly  scheme  and  to  keep  the  Indians  in 
check. 

You  may  admire  this  George  Rogers  Clark  to 
your  heart's  content,  for,  by  his  timely  action, 
he  saved  much  bloodshed.  He  was  the  first  hero 
of  the  new  era  in  the  Great  West.  He  readily 
got  a  commisison  from  Patrick  Henry,  Governor 


GENERAL  GEORGE  E.  ROGERS  CLARK, 

"The  First  Hero  of  the  New  Era  in  the  Great 

West. ' ' 

of  the  State  of  Virginia,  to  command  a  military 
expedition.  In  the  spring  of  1778,  he  started 
from  his  camp  on  Corn  Island  in  the  Ohio  river, 
near  the  present  city  of  Louisville,  in  his  long 
march  to  Kaskaskia. 


27 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Did  he  capture  famous  Fort  Chartres  near  that 
town?  No!  Fort  Chartres,  built  in  1718,  rebuilt 
in  stone  in  1750,  was  destined  never  to  have  a 
shot  fired  against  it.  Three 
years  before  the  war  of 
the  Eevolution  began,  it 
had  the  honor  of  having 
its  walls  razed  by  a  Mis- 
sissippi river  flood. 

With  the  unfurling  of 
the  British  flag  in  1765,  the 
river  began  to  mutter  at 
the  base  of  the  bluff. 
Higher  and  higher  crept 
the  water  with  each  spring 
GEN.  ANTHONY  WAYNE,  freshet.  In  1772,  a  rush  of 
waters  washed  away  the  river  wall  of  the  old 
fort.  The  British  garrison  fled  to  Kaskaskia. 
On  the  bluff  above  the  rippling  Okaw,  and  over- 
looking the  busy  town,  which  then  had  a  popu- 
lation of  1,000,  Fort  Gage  was  built.  There 
a  M.  de  Rocheblave,  a  renegade  Frenchman, 
who  in  his  time  had  served  King  Louis  in  Fort 
Chartres,  now  commanded  Fort  Gage  in  the 
name  of  King  George,  and  was  held  in  execra- 
tion by  the  loyal  French  of  the  town. 

One  of  the  stories  in  connection  with  the 
capture  of  Fort  Gage  is  that  Major  Clark  was 
helped  by  Father  Pierre  Gibault,  a  priest  of 
Kaskaskia,  who  expressed  the  liveliest  satisfac- 
tion when  De  Eocheblave  departed,  a  prisoner 
of  war  of  the  "Long  Knives"  of  Virginia,  as 
the  Indians  called  the  American  pioneers  from 
their  habit  of  carrying  great  hunting  knives  in 
their  belts. 

Fort  Gage  was  easily  taken,  for  the  British 
officers,  in  fancied  security  from  attack,  were 
attending  a  ball  in  the  pleasure-loving  French 
town.  The  sentinels  were  captured,  the  garrison 
imprisoned  and  placed  under  guard,  and  then 
Major  Clark  with  a  picked  company  crossed  the 
Okaw  in  a  ferry  boat  and  appeared  in  frontier 
costumes  of  deerskin  shirts  and  trousers,  coon- 
skin  caps  and  great  boots,  and  armed  with  guns 
and  knives,  at  the  door  of  the  ballroom.  There 
was  a  panic.  Ladies  screamed  and  fainted,  the 
British  officers  turned  pale  with  rage  and 
chagrin,  and  Father  Gibault,  in  his  long,  loose 
gown,  behind  the  "Long  Knives"  chuckled  with 
amusement. 

The  French  villages  in  the  Illinois  country 
were  ready  enough  to  welcome  the  rule  of  Vir- 
ginia, for  the  French  alliance  had  been  an- 
nounced. Lafayette  was  fighting  under  Wash- 
ington, and  Admiral  d'Estaing  had  arrived  in  the 
Delaware  in  a  French  fleet.  Loyalty  to  the  rebel 
Americans  meant  loyalty  to  France.  It  was 
fondly  dreamed,  too,  that,  should  the  Revolution 
succeed,  France  might  regain  Louisiana. 

A  People  Who  Objected  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Self -Government. — They  were  not  so  ready,  how- 
ever, for  self-government,  which  came  as  a  con- 
sequence of  Clark's  capture  of  Fort  Gage.  For 


eighty  years  the  French  dwellers  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi had  been  under  priest,  chartered  com 
pany,  royal  commandant,  or  British  military 
rule.  They  were  prepared  to  accept  a  new 
despot  with  philosophy. 

As  a  self-governing  state,  Virginia  was  less 
than  three  years  old  and  there  were  to  be  three 
years  more  before  her  political  status  was  to  be 
assured  at  Yorktown,  but  she  did  not  shrink 
from  her  duty  of  giving  republican  institutions 
to  the  vast  territory  in  the  Great  West,  which 
she  claimed  by  charter  and  by  conference.  An 
act  was  passed  by  the  Virginia  assembly  organ- 
izing the  present  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana.  Illi- 
nois, Michigan  and  Wisconsin  into  the  county  of 
Illinois,  and  Col.  John  Tod  was  appointed  Coun- 
ty Lieutenant,  with  his  capital  at  Kaskaskia. 

Colonel  Tod  arrived  at  Kaskaskia  in  May, 
1779,  by  way  of  the  Ohio.  In  all  probability  he 
made  a  journey  from  Pittsburg  in  a  sailing 
vessel,  for  there  were  sailboats  on  the  Ohio  as 
early  as  1774.  The  thirteen  stars  and  thirteen 
stripes  flew  from  the  masthead,  as  the  boat  came 
to  anchor  in  the  Okaw  before  the  town.  The 
inhabitants  were  gathered  on  the  bank.  Here 
and  there  a  voice  cried: 

"Vive  le  Roi!" 

"There  is  no  king,  now,"  another  would  say. 

"Parbleu!      Who   then   is  to  rule  us?" 

"They  say  we  are  to  govern  ourselves." 

Heads  were  shaken  in  bewilderment.    The  new 


28 


THE    STORY   OF   CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT . 


governor,  who  called  himself  simply  County 
Lieuatenant,  and  came  in  little  state,  inspired 
no  confidence.  Kaskaskia  was  used  to  splendor 
and  high-sounding  titles.  The  first  thing  Colonel 
Tod  did  was  to  organize  a  military  force.  That 
the  people  understood.  But  when  he  ordered 
an  election  of  civil  officers  they  had  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  business  of  voting.  The  climax 
was  reached  when  the  new  town  councils  were 
told  that  it  was  their  duty  to  levy  taxes  to 
defend  their  new  liberties.  To  taxes  imposed 
by  the  king  they  had  always  submitted,  as  to 
the  will  of  God,  but  to  impose  taxes  on  them- 
selves was  a  queer  use  to  make  of  liberty.  It 
\vas  beyond  their  comprehension  that  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  were  fighting  bitterly  for  the  right' 
to  tax  themselves.  Had  the  world  gone  mad? 

By  dint  of  not  a  little  old-fashioned  despotism, 
Governor  Tod  forced  these  simple  Frenchmen  to 
take  the  trouble  to  govern  and  tax  themselves. 
It  was  not  so  difficult  to  raise  recruits  for  Major 
Clark,  who  had  taken  Vincennes  and  was  clear- 
ing the  Wabash  region  of  troublesome  Indians. 
The  British  did  not  venture  out  of  the  French 
forts  .on  the  Great  Lakes.  Thus  it  happened 


nois,  Virginia  had  fought  twice  in  the  conviction 
that  it  belonged  to  her.  She  had  conquered  it 
from  the  common  enemy,  occupied,  governed,  and 
defended  it  for  three  years,  without  help  from 
Congress  or  any  other  colony.  Now,  one  is  glad 
to  read,  from  a  motive  of  pure  patriotism,  she 
gave  it  all  up  to  the  general  government.  Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut,  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia  had  "sea  to  sea"  charters 
also,  but  none  of  them  had  ventured  anything 
to  secure  their  titles  to  unoccupied  territory  in 
the  West.  But  now,  the  seven  states  which  had 
no  such  charters,  refusing  to  sign  the  Articles 
of  Confederation  unless  such  claims  should  be 
surrendered  to  the  general  government  for  the 
payment  of  the  cost  of  the  war,  Virginia  set 
the  example  in  patriotism. 

Growth  of  the  Northwest  After  the  Revolu- 
tion. Thus  was  created  a  public  domain,  on  the 
condition  that  the  territory  should  be  cut  up 
and  admitted  as  states  as  soon  as  there  should 
be  sufficient  population.  The  "County  of  Vir- 
ginia" became  the  Northwest  Territory. 

In  1787  it  was  ordered  surveyed,  marked  into 
townships  and  opened  for  settlement  and  the  re- 


that,  with  very  little  bloodshed,  Virginia  estab- 
lished military  and  civil  rule  over  the  region 
northwest  of  the  Ohio.  It  was  this  fact  of  actual 
occupation  which  secured  the  Mississippi  and 
the  western  boundary  of  the  United  States  at 
the  close  of  the  Revolution. 

For  the  possession  of  the  country  of  the  Tlli- 


cording  of  deeds.  The  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
one  township,  measuring  one  mile  square,  out 
of  every  thirty-six,  in  the  old  Northwest  Terri- 
tory, were  to  go  toward  the  creating  of  a  public 
school  fund.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  in  all  probability,  public  lands 
were  set  aside  for  public  education. 


29 


THE   STORY   OF   CHICAGO   AND   NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


This  fact  alone  would  have  attracted  the  emi- 
gration of  ambitious  families  from  the  seaboard 
colonies.  The  settlement  of  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory, however,  was  subject  to  the  consent  of 
the  Indians  and,  incidentally,  of  the  British  gar- 
risons which,  in  spite  of  the  treaty  of  peace, 
still  occupied  the  old  French  forts  and  traded 
for  furs  in  a  wide  strip  of  territory  south  of 
the  Great  Lakes.  This  included  all  of  the  state 
of  Michigan  and  the  present  sites  of  Chicago, 
Milwaukee,  and  Duluth,  upper  Ohio  and  north- 
western New  York. 

To  strengthen  their  position  the  British  gar 
risons  made  friends  with  the  Indians  and  in- 
cited them  to  resist  the  flood  of  emigration  that 
began  to  pour  down  the  Ohio.  It  became  clear 
that  the  new  government  would  have  to  fight 
the  Indians  before  the  Northwest  Territory 
could  be  settled  and  its  treaty  right  to  the  south 
shore  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river  system  secured. 

This  state  of  affairs  presented  extraordinary 
difficulties  which  we  find  it  hard  to  realize  to- 
day. In  1790  all  except  perhaps  10,000  of  the 
3,380,000  people  of  the  United  States  lived  east 
of  the  Alleghany  mountains  and  more  than  half 
of  the  10,000  in  the  northwest  were  in  the 
French  settlements  along  the  Mississippi,  and 
in  Kentucky.  Fully  half  the  population  of  the 
country  was  south  of  Pennsylvania.  The  six 
largest  seaboard  cities  had  altogether  only 
131,000  people.  Washington  had  no  existence 
until  1800.  Philadelphia  was  the  capital,  and 
from  that  city  diverged  great  highways  to  New 
York,  New  England,  and  Virginia.  One  stage 
road  ran  the  entire  length  of  Pennsylvania  to 
Pittsburg,  and  stages  made  the  journey  over  the 
mountains  to  Pittsburg  in  twelve  days. 

Here,  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Ohio  river  had 
grown  up  a  town  of  two  hundred  log  cabins. 
Two  thousand  people  lived  there  and  did  a  thriv- 
ing business  in  the  outfitting  of  emigrants  for 
the  West.  There  were  flour  and  saw  mills,  black- 
smith shops,  stores  of  dry  goods  and  salt  meats, 
and  ship-building  yards  where  flatboats,  keel- 
boats,  and  sailing  vessels  for  navigating  the 
Ohio  were  constructed.  A  blast  furnace  for  the 
smelting  of  iron  ore  was  probably  in  operation 
on  one  of  the  lofty  hill  tops,  and  castings  were 
made  for  boats,  wagons,  and  the  farm  imple- 
ments that  would  be  needed  by  the  emigrants. 
Since  nothing  could  be  obtained  in  the  West, 
except  what  nature  provided,  everything  had  to 
be  taken  there.  A  family  usually  required  two 
boats.  On  the  floatboat  were  loaded  horses  and 
cattle,  pigs,  sheep,  chickens,  hunting-dogs,  house- 
hold goods,  farm  implements  and  tools,  the 
churn,  spinning-wheel  and  loom,  barrels  of  flour 
and  salt 'pork,  and  bags  of  corn  meal  and  pota- 
toes. Seeds  of  every  description  were  included, 
even  roots  of  rose  bushes  and  honeysuckles  from 
the  old  home  gardens. 

^The  family,  with  the  guns  and  stores  of  ammu- 
nition, clothing,  and  provisions  for  the  voyage, 


embarked  on  a  keelboat  that  was  fitted  up  with 
a  cabin  on  the  deck,  so  low  as  to  pass  under 
the  branches  of  trees  along  shore  so  they  could 
lie  concealed  where  anchorage  was  made  foi 
the  night.  The  walls  of  the  cabin  were  made 
bullet  and  arrow  proof,  for  hostile  Indians  fol- 
lowed boats  for  days,  and  watched  from  the 
shores  to  shoot  the  emigrants.  Thus,  steered 
by  one  huge  oar  at  the  stern,  these  water  cara- 
vans with  their  freight  of  courageous  people, 
floated  into  the  wilderness. 

"The  Ordinance  of  '87."  Before  the  war  of 
the  Revolution  all  this  western,  country  was 
thought  of  by  the  settlers  in  the  East  as  rich 
and  desirable,  but  very  dangerous  because  of  the 
Indians  and  the  wild  beasts  which  prowled  about 
in  great  numbers.  After  the  war,  the  people 
were,  of  course,  unsettled  and  ready  for  adven- 
ture. Boys  who  had  followed  the  flag  and  seen 
bloodshed  were  not  much  frightened  by  stories 
of  Indians,  and  as  for  wild  beasts,  they  were 
simply  game  for  these  hardy  young  fellows. 

The  large  families  had  to  break  up  and  the 
more  rugged  members  go  out  to  the  frontier, 
where  land  was  plenty  and  opportunity  great. 
But  until  the  close  of  the  war,  there  was  no 
great  inducement  to  young  men  to  go  west.  But 
an  important  act  of  legislation  which  came  about 
on  the  very  year  of  the  adoption  of  the  constitu- 
tion changed  all  this  western  country  at  a  stroke 
of  the  pen.  We  can  remember  this  date,  1787, 
not  only  by  the  name  of  the  ordinance,  which  is 
always  spoken  of  as  if  it  were  the  only  ordinance 
of  its  year,  "The  Ordinance  of  Eighty-seven," 
but  also  we  may  remember  the  date  by  associa- 
tion with  the  date  of  the  adoption  by  the  con- 
vention of  the  federal  constitution,  1787.  Most 
of  us  remember  readily  that  Washington  began 
as  president  under  the  constitution  in  1789,  and 
that  the  constitution  which  then  went  into  effect 
was  adopted  somewhat  before  that  date. 

In  1787  congress  agreed  by  the  ordinance-  of 
'87  to  protect  settlers  in  the  new  country  from 
the  ravages  of  wild  beasts  and  Indians.  The 
Northwestern  territory  included  what  is  now  the 
states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin,  and  the  two  positive  advances  in 
government  which  were  made  in  the  erection  of 
this  territory  made  a  startling  change  in  the 
history  of  civil  government.  Slavery  was  for- 
bidden north  of  the  Ohio  river  in  this  section. 
Land  was  set  apart  for  educational  purposes, 
and  a  provision  was  made  to  help  out  the 
younger  children  of  parents  who  died  without 
will.  Instead  of  giving  all  the  property  to  the 
eldest,  the  ordinance  settled  matters  so  that 
younger  sons  and  daughters  of  a  father  who 
died  without  making  a  will  had  equal  shares  in 
the  division  of  the  estate.  This  upset  the  old 
English  notion  and  law  which  had  prevailed  in 
the  colonies  wherever  the  rule  of  England  was 
acknowledged,  for  it  had  been  the  custom  to 
give  everything  to  the  eldest  son  regardless  of 


30 


THE    STOEY   OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


the  rights  or  worth  of  the  younger  members  of 
the  family. 

Within  two  years  of  the  passage  of  this  ordi- 
nance, twenty  thousand  settlers  made  their  way 
down  the  Ohio.  They  usually  went  down  with 
the  current  on  flatboats,  and  when  they  reached 
their  destinations,  they  tore  up  the  boats  and 
used  the  planks  to  build  their  first  residences 
in  the  new  land  where  there  were  yet  no  saw 
mills. 

In  the  year  1788,  10,000  emigrants  passed 
through  Pittsburg.  The  never-ending  stream  of 
settlers  began  to  make  an  impression  on  the 
great  West.  Trees  were  felled,  cabins  rose  in 
the  clearings,  crops  were  planted  and  sometimes 
harvested,  pioneers  perished,  but,  in  doing  so, 
they  made  the  way  easier  for  those  who  came 
after  them.  Not  without  honor  did  these  sol- 
diers die  in  the  front  ranks  of  the  battle  of  civili- 
zation. Not  in  vain  were  the  hardships  endured 
by  delicate  women  and  little  children.  A  ster- 
ling race  sprang  up  in  the  old  Northwest  Terri- 
tory. 

Cincinnati  and  Marietta,  Ohio,  were  founded 
in  1778.  After  that  time  there  is  a  gap  of  eight 
years  before  Chillicothe,  Dayton,  and  Cleveland 
were  settled.  What  do  you  suppose  was  the 
reason  for  this?  During  the  first  year  or  two, 
until  ground  could  be  cleared  and  crops  har- 
vested, pioneers  were  compelled  to  depend 
chiefly  upon  game  to  supply  their  tables.  As 
wild  animals  became  scarce,  the  Indians,  spurred 
on  by  British  garrisons  on  the  Lakes,  who 
wanted  to  keep  the  fur-trade,  determined  to 
drive  the  white  settlers  out.  They  succeeded, 
for  five  or  six  years,  in  checking  emigration. 
Hundreds  of  cabins  were  burned.  Pioneers  were 
scalped,  and  women  and  children  were  carried 
into  captivity.  In  Kentucky,  1,500  people  per- 
ished during  these  years.  In  Illinois  one  horror 
followed  another;  men  who  plowed  the  fields  did 
so  under  guard.  Forts  were  built  at  Cincinnati 


and  Marietta,  and  General  St.  Clair,  governor 
of  the  Northwest  Territory,  led  an  unsuccessful 
expedition  against  the  Miami  Indians. 

General  Wayne's  Defeat  of  the  Indians.  The 
task  of  opening  the  Northwest  to  peaceable  set- 
tlement was  at  last  undertaken  by  Gen.  Anthony 
Wayne,  then  commander-in-chief  of  the  Ameri- 
can army.  He  went  about  his  work  in  so  cool 
and  sane  a  fashion  as  to  belie  his  nickname  of 
"Mad  Anthony."  In  all  our  literature  there  is 
no  more  stirring  story  of  Indian  fighting  than 
is  to  be  found  in  the  simple  narration  of  General 
Wayne's  campaign  of  1793-4. 

He  marched  from  Fort  Washington  at  Cincin- 
nati, to  where  is  now  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  and 
thence  up  the  Maumee  to  the  rapids  in  Ohio, 
where,  in  the  shelter  of  the  British  Fort  Meigs, 
the  Indians  had  taken  their  stand  amid  a  large 
tract  of  fallen  timber,  a  place  admirably 
adapted  to  their  mode  of  warfare.  There  the 
Indians  of  the  Northwest  were  defeated  in  a 
great  battle  on  the  20th  of  August,  1794.  A 
year  later  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Fort 
Greenville,  northwest  of  the  new  settlement  of 
Dayton.  This  treaty  is  very  important  to  us, 
for  in  it  the  name  of  Chicago  occurs  for  the  first 
time  in  any  official  document  since  1735,  when 
Pierre  d'Artaguette  proposed  to  march  from 
Fort  Chartres  against  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  and 
open  the  Chicagou  portage. 

There  was  a  great  gathering  of  tribes  at  Fort 
Greenville — all  the  old  Algonquins  who  had  been 
soured  against  the  white  man  by  the  disposses- 
sion of  the  French.  The  Miamis  were  the  great 
tribe  in  northern  Indiana  and  Ohio.  The  Ottawas 
and  Ojibwas  and  Hurons  were  in  Michigan. 
The  Delawares  were  around  Dayton,  the  Pianke- 
shas  and  Weas  in  eastern  Illinois  along  the  west 
side  of  the  Wabash. 

The  Illinois  Indians  who  had  rallied  to  the 
banner  of  LaSalle,  had  disappeared.  By  1800 
only  thirty  warriors  of  these  once  numerous 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


tribes  were  living  in  Kaskaskia.  About  1780 
great  numbers  had  perished  on  the  Rock  of  St. 
Louis  (Starved  Rock).  One  of  their  number — 
a  Kaskaskian — had  assassinated  Chief  Pontiac, 
the  Ottawa,  in  Cahokia,  in  all  probability  bribed 
to  the  deed  by  the  British  at  Fort  Gage,  Kas- 
kaskia. The  Pottawatomies,  at  the  time  of 
Wayne's  victory,  occupied  the  south  end  of 
Lake  Michigan.  Each  tribe  was  required  to 
cede  some  choice  bit  of  land  to  the  United 
States.  The  Miamis  thus  lost  their  ancient  capi- 
tal and  portage  between  the  Maumee  and  the 
Wabash,  now  known  as  Fort  Wayne,  and  the 
Pottawatomies  ceded  ' '  one  piece  of  land,  six 
miles  square,  at  the  mouth  of  Chicago  river, 
emptying  into  Lake  Michigan,  where  a  fort 
formerly  stood."  This  was  Tonty's  fort,  aban- 
doned nearly  a  hundred  years  before. 

The  British,  finding  their  fur  trade  gone, 
evacuated  the  forts  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  re- 
tired to  Montreal.  The  Indians  of  the  North- 
west were,  for  the  time  being,  conquered,  and 
gave  little  more  trouble  until  the  war  of  1812. 
Emigration  poured  into  the  West.  Cleveland 
was  settled  and  Detroit  grew  apace.  Near  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  English  names 
began  to  appear  in  the  annals  of  Kaskaskia, 
names  destined  to  shine  in  the  early  history  of 
Illinois.  The  lead-mining  district  of  Dubuque, 
Galena,  and  Prairie  du  Chien  was  being  worked. 
Salt  making,  from  salt  springs,  in  Indiana,  Illi- 
nois, Missouri,  and  Tennessee  was  a  growing 
industry.  Along  the  Ohio,  the  middle  Missis- 
sippi, the  Cumberland,  and  the  Tennessee  rivers 
were  numerous  water  mills  for  making  flour  and 
meal  and  sawing  lumber. 

Emigration  for  years  to  come  was  to  be  along 
the  Ohio  and  through  Cumberland  Gap.  Ken- 
tucky was  admitted  as  a  state  in  1792,  Tennessee 
in  1796,  and  Ohio  in  1803.  Except  for  the  old 
French  and  Spanish  towns  along  the  Mississippi, 
there  were  no  settlements  of  white  men  west 


of  Vincennes;  but  Kaskaskia  had  become  the 
Mecca  of  the  Great  West  toward  which  money 
and  enterprise  turned.  It  had  its  judge,  its 
lawyers,  its  doctors,  its  thriving  merchants,  its 
university  graduates,  its  soldiers,  its  legislators, 
its  speculators  in  mines  and  lands,  its  exporters 
of  flour  and  pork  and  lead,  its  Indian  agents, 
and  its  embroyo  statesmen  who  were  to  frame 
the  constitution  of  Illinois  in  1818. 

St.  Louis  did  not  attract  pioneers  other  than 
French  and  Spanish  until  after  Louisiana  was 
first  ceded  to  France  in  1800  and  then  sold  to  the 
United  States  in  1803  by  Napoleon,  for  $15,- 
000,000. 

There  was  a  thriving  town  and  much  land 
under  cultivation  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wiscon- 
sin, where  a  trading  post  was  very  early  fortified 
by  the  French,  and  later  developed  by  the  Brit- 
ish. At  Peoria  was  a  flourishing  trading  center 
among  the  Indians.  Except  for  these  two  places, 
there  were  few  white  men  in  the  region  from 
which  Chicago  was  to  draw  its  wealth  when,  in 
the  year  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  orders  were 
given  by  the  department  of  war  at  Washington 
— then  only  three  years  old — for  the  building 
of  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  river. 

The  Unpainted  Warrior.  There  seems  to  be 
no  picture  of  the  famous  Ottawa  Chief,  Pontiac, 
in  existence.  The  historical  societies  of  Chi- 
cago, Illinois,  Michigan,  Detroit,  the  St.  Louis 
Exposition  officials,  and  the  librarian  of  the 
House  of  Commons  of  Ottawa,  Canada,  have  all 
been  appealed  to.  In  the  illustrated  edition  of 
Parkman's  "Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,"  no  por- 
trait of  the  chief  appears.  Mr.  Pierre  Chouteau, 
the  living  descendant  of  both  of  the  founders 
of  St.  Louis,  and  an  enthusiastic  collector  of 
French  and  Indian  relics,  wrote  the  author  tha* 
he  had  for  years  tried  in  vain  to  find  portraits 
of  Pontiac  and  of  St.  Ange  de  Bellerive,  the 
last  French  officer  over  Fort  Chartres  and  first 
governor  of  upper  Louisiana.' 


32 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE     WAUBANSIA 
STONE. 


FORT     DEARBORN,     THE     BEGINNING     OF 
MODERN  CHICAGO. 

(1803-1812.) 

General  Dearborn  Orders  a  Fort  on  Chicago 
River.— With  the  defeat  of  the  Indians  of  the 
Northwest  by  General  Anthony  Wayne  in  1795 
the  'way  was  open  for  a  fresh  beginning  to  be 
made  at  Chicago.  Eight 
years  passed,  however,  be- 
fore General  Henry  Dear- 
torn,  Secretary  of  War  un- 
der President  Jefferson,  in- 
structed Captain  Whistler, 
of  the  post  at  Detroit,  to 
proceed  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Chicago  river,  with  one 
company  of  soldiers  of  the  regular  army,  and 
there  to  build  a  fort. 

The  fort  at  Chicago  was  not  considered  of 
special  importance,  for,  until  the  massacre  of 
1812,  there  is  little  concerning  it  in  the  records 
of  the  war  office  at  Washington.  It  seems  to 
have  been  established  chiefly  for  the  protection 
of  an  Indian  agent,  who  was  to  have  charge  of 
the  government's  dealings  with  the  Pottawa- 
tomies,  Sacs,  Foxes  and  Kickapoos.  The  agent 
was  expected  to  control  a  great  deal  of  the  fur 
trade  of  the  region. 

The  story  of  those  nine  years  in  Chicago  and 
of  the  massacre  itself  has  been  gathered  chiefly 
from  the  personal  recollections  of  the  heroic 
band  of  Americans  who  lived  at  this  frontier 
post.  They  are  so  few  that  you  can  come  to 
know  them  by  name. 

The  private  soldiers  and  non-commissioned 
officers,  to  the  number  of  sixty-eight,  marched 
overland — the  first  troop  of  any  nation  to  cross 
the  unbroken  forests  of  lower  Michigan — and 
around  the  head  of  the  lake  to  the  site  of  Chi- 
cago, which  looked  exactly  as  Marquette  had 
found  it  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  before, 
except  for  four  rude,  bark-covered  cabins,  where 
French  voyageurs  lived  with  their  Indian  wives. 
Captain  Whistler,  with  his  wife  and  three-year- 
old  son  George,  who  was  to  become  the  famous 
engineer  and  build  railroads  for  the  Czar  of 
Russia;  his  son,  Lieutenant  William  Whistler 
with  his  young  bride,  and  Lieutenant  Moses 
Hooke,  emb;irked§  in  the  United  States  sailing 
schooner  Tracy  for  the  voyage  around  the  lakes. 
The  two  Whistler  ladies  were  not  dismayed  by 
the  venture,  for  they  were  soldiers '  wives  and 
used  to  frontier  service.  But  there  was  much 
shopping  to  be  done  in  the  muddy  unpaved 


streets  of  Detroit  for  wearing  apparel  and 
household  necessities  which  they  would  need  for 
at  least  a  year.  All  such  goods  at  that  time 
came  from  Montreal,  for  distribution  to  the 
scattered  trading  posts  in  the  Northwest,  which 
were  still  very  largely  inhabited  by  the  French. 
Military  stores  for  the  United  States  army  came 
from  the  East  through  Cincinnati  and  Fort 
Wayne,  or  by  way  of  the  seven-year-old  town 
of  Cleveland  over  Lake  Erie. 

It  was  late  in  the  summer  when  the  Tracy 
left  the  docks  at  Detroit,  the  little  company 
quite  expecting  the  voyage  to  the  Chicago  river 
to  take  three  months.  On  Lake  Huron  they  had 
almost  the  same  experiences  as  La  Salle  had  in 
the  Griffin  a  century  and  a  quarter  before — 
calms  in  the  St.  Clair  flats,  violent  storms  on 
Thunder  Bay,  the  springing  of  leaks  in  the  cabin 
roof,  and  sea-sickness.  In  fair  weather  they  sat 
on  the  deck  and  watched  the  wooded  shore  glide 
by.  There  was  no  sign  of  a  white  settlement 
until  they  reached  Michilimackinac. 

The  Trading  Post  at  Michilimackinac. — The 
sea-girt  rocky  point  had  become  a  great  place 
of  transit  for  the  furs  of  the  Northwest.  A 
white-washed  fort  crowned  the  beautiful  bluif. 
The  Indian  agency  house  had  its  piazza  and 
garden.  Beside  the  long  warehouse  of  the  Mack- 
inac  Fur  company  were  piers  and  wharfs  laden 
with  goods  for  the  Indian  trade.  Numerous  log 
cabins  were  occupied  by  French  artisans  and 
swarms  of  Ottowa  lodges  enlivened  the  beach. 
The  crystal  bay  was  dotted  with  hundreds  of 
bark  canoes  and  long  Mackinac  row-boats  with 
their  freight  of  furs  from  Lake  Superior,  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  Mississippi.  These  had  come 
hundreds  of  miles  with  their  loads  of  beaver, 
otter,  marten,  mink,  red  and  silver  fox,  wolf, 
bear,  wild-cat,  and  smoked  deer  skins.  Carried 
around  portages,  beached  in  storms,  calked  with 
pitch  and  greased  with  deer  tallow  to  make  them 
glide  swiftly,  what  wild  regions  had  they  not 
traversed  in  their  long  journeys  from  Duluth, 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Peoria  and  St.  Joseph. 

No  one  would  have  believed  that  this  town  of 
Mackinac  was  then  on  American  territory.  Ex- 
cept for  the  garrison  the  people  were  mainly 
French  Canadians  and  Indians,  and  very  little 
English  was  spoken.  In  September  the  place 
was  very  likely  to  be  crowded  with  voyaguers 
making  out  their  forest  outfits.  There  were  fam- 
ily reunions  and  marriages,  and  baptisms  of  in- 
fants in  the  Catholic  mission,  much  feasting  and 
dancing  and  exchange  of  goods.  In  another 


33 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND'NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


month  or  so  the  place  would  be  almost  deserted 
and  locked  in  the  ice  of  the  strait. 

The  little  company  set  sail  again,  lay  for  days 
among  the  Manitou  Islands,  and  saw,  perhaps, 
the  little  river,  on  whose  bank  Marquette  died, 
flashing  down  an  open  glade  that  lay  below 
Sleepy  Bear  Point.  For  a  United  States  naval 
vessel  this  was  a  voyage  of  discovery  and  ex- 
ploration on  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan.  Ex- 
cept for  clusters  of  Indian  villages  around  Green 
Bay  and  the  mouth  of  the  Grand  River  in  Mich- 
igan, there  was  nothing  to  break  the  monotony 
of  plain  and  wood  and  bluff  along  the  wild 
shores. 

At  St.  Joseph  the  officers  disembarked  while 
the  Tracy  proceeded  to  Chicago.  At  St.  Joseph 
they  were  entertained  by  William  Burnett,  a 
trader  who  had  been  at  that  point  more  than 
thirty  years,  and  by  John  Kinzie,  a  silversmith 
who  had  recently  come  over  from  Detroit  to  set 
up  as  an  independent  trader  in  furs.  Mrs. 
Kinzie,  who  had  been  a  Mrs.  Eleanor  McKillup, 
and  the  widow  of  a  British  officer,  no  doubt 
found  old  friends  in  the  ladies  of  Fort  Dear- 
born. The  Kinzies  seem  to  have  decided  to  go 
to  the  new  settlement  on  the  Chicago  river  as 
soon  as  the  fort  should  "be  built. 

Late  in  the  summer  the  officers  and  ladies 
crossed  the  lake  in  a  Mackinac  row-boat.  This 
style  of  boat  was  a  skiff  thirty  feet  long  with 
a  sort  of  a  deck,  midway,  where  passengers  and 
goods  could  be  protected  from  the  weather  by  a 
tarpaulin  roof.  For  many  years  to  come  the 
freight  of  Lake  Michigan  was  to  be  carried 
chiefly  in  Mackinac  boats. 

On  the  Site  of  Fort  Dear- 
born.— The  Tracy  was  anchor- 
ed a  half-mile  from  shore,  dis- 
charging her  cargo  by  row- 
boats.  The  soldiers  stood 
guard  over  the  piles  of  mer- 
chandise and  military  stores 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  river, 
on  an  elevation  at  the  point 
where  the  stream  turned 
southward.  Here  Fort  Dear- 
born was  to  be  built.  Two 
thousand  Indians  stood  on 
shore  and  watched  the 
strange,  "big  canoe  with 
wings,"  which  rocked  idly  in 
the  harbor  of  Chicago. 

Most  numerous  were  the 
Pottawatomies — very  tall  and 
fierce-looking  and  haughty. 
They  wore  buffalo  robes  or 
red  and  blue  blankets.  Their  FOET  DEAEBOEN. 

faces  and  arms  were  delicately          "In    the    following    summer    the    fort  was  completed   and  a   suug 
painted  in  lace-like  designs  of      little  stronghold  it  was,  with  its  stout  stockade,  blockhouses  and  corn- 
white  and  vermilion,  and  col-      fortable   quarters." 
ored    feathers    were    in    their. 

head-dresses.  The  Kickapoos  were  tall,  sinewy,  plete,  and  a  snug  little  stronghold  it  was,  with 
and  active  and  their  dialect  soft  and  liquid.  But  its  stout  stockade,  block  houses,  and  comfortable 
the  Sacs  and  Foxes  were  veritable  Ishmaelites  quarters  for  officers  and  men. 


of  the  prairies,  their  hands  against  everyone. 
These  latter  tribes,  however,  had  their  home  on 
Bock  Eiver  and  it  was  thirty  years  before  they 
were  to  menace  the  peace  of  Chicago. 

It  was  remarked  with  misgiving  that  these 
Indians  were  well  clothed,  and  armed  with  rifles, 
keen,  bright  tomahawks,  hunting  knives,  wood- 
men's axes,  and  muskrat  spears.  All  the  tribes 
of  the  Northwest,  except  the  Miamis,  were 
known  to  be  in  the  pay  of  the  British,  and  to 
send  their  chief  men  to  Fort  Maiden,  Canada, 
every  year,  for  presents  of  goods  and  money. 
Here,  in  this  remote  outpost,  was  fresh  indica- 
tion that,  in  the  event  of  another  war,  England 
might  have  her  red  allies  retained  to  fall  upon 
the  American  frontier  posts  and  settlements. 

Captain  Whistler  set  about  erecting  a  stockade 
and  barracks  before  winter  should  set  in.  The 
Tracy  sailed  back  to  Detroit.  While  the  fort 
was  building,  the  ladies  took  refuge  in  the  bark- 
covered  cabins  of  their  French  voyageurs, 
whose  names  were  Ouilmette  (Wilmette),  Le 
Mai,  and  Pettell.  The  Indians  departed  to  their 
villages  and  then  went  off  on  the  annual  hunt. 

The  Building  of  Fort  Dearborn.— There  was 
not,  within  hundreds  of  miles  a  team  of  horses 
or  oxen  and  soldiers  had  to  put  on  rope  harnesses 
and  drag  the  needed  timbers  from  the  oak 
woods,  six  or  seven  miles  south,  over  the  west 
prairie.  After  the  river  froze  over,  the  logs  were 
dragged  down  the  ice.  The  widow  of  Lieutenant 
Whistler,  who  came  here  a  bride,  told,  more  than 
sixty  years  later,  how  the  soldiers  built  Fort 
Dearborn.  In  the  summer  the  fort  was  com- 


34 


THE    STORY.  OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


John  Kinzie,  the  "Father  of  Chicago,"  ar- 
rived in  the  spring  of  1804,  and  the  population 
of  the  "Settlement  of  Fort  Dearborn,"  as  it 
was  called,  was  increased  by  six  persons.  Be- 
side his  wife,  he  brought  his  young  nephew, 
Eobert  Forsythe,  his  nine-year-old  stepdaughter, 
Margaret  McKillup,  and  the  baby,  John  H.  Kin- 
zie, who  made  his  entry  into  our  future  city  in 
an  Indian  birch-bark  cradle,  swung  from  the 
shoulder  of  a  negro  slave — Black  Jim. 

Mr.  Kinzie  bought  La  Mai's  cabin,  which 
stood  on  the  north  side  of  the  river  facing  the 
fort,  even  then  an  old  house  with  a  history,  and 
began  to  improve  it.  He  promptly  took  the 
three  French  voyageurs  into  his  service  and  sent 
them  into  the  woods  to  collect  furs.  Within  a 
year  he  had  established  trading  posts  at  Milwau- 
kee and  on  the  Illinois,  the  Rock,  and  the  Kan- 
kakee  rivers. 

How  Business  Was  Carried  on  at  the  Trading 
Posts. — Each  trading  post  had  its  superintend- 
ent, agents,  voyageurs,  trains  of  pack-horses, 


LIEUT.   WILLIAM 
WHISTLER. 


CAPT.     WM.     WELLS. 

Hero   of  the  Mas- 
sacre. 


canoes  and  Mackinac  boats.  Furs  from  all  the 
outposts  were  brought  to  Chicago,  and  the  packs 
made  ready  for  the  sailing  vessel  that  came 
down  from  Michilimackinac  in  the  spring  with 
goods  from  Montreal. 

The  fur  trade,  which  was  to  be  the  only  busi- 
ness conducted  in  Chicago  for  years,  was  car- 
ried on  under  conditions  that  can  not  be  imag- 
ined today.  There  was  practically  no  money  in 
the  country  except  what  was  paid  out  at  the 
fort  by  the  government.  A  gun, .  a  blanket,  a 
wool  shirt,  whatever  was  wanted  by  the  Indians, 
was  paid  for  in  skins.  Different  kinds  of  skins 
had  different  values  and  these  varied  according 
to  their  beauty,  size  and  rarity.  When  the  skins 
were  received  at  Mackinac  they  were  paid  for 
in  goods  for  the  Indian  trade  and  in  clothing, 
food  stuffs,  ammunition,  or  building  material 
wanted  by  the  traders.  The  country  produced 
not  a  single  necessity  of  life  except  game,  fish, 
and  Indian  corn.  The  corn  could  not  be  ground, 
but  was  hulled  with  lye  and  used  as  hominy. 
Flour  and  salt  pork  formed  two  of  the  largest 
items  of  import  into  Chicago — the  city  which,  in 
time,  was  to  furnish  Europe  with  meat  and 
grain. 


The  work  of  collecting  the  pelts  was  done  by 
the  voyageurs.  These  were  half-breeds  or 
French  Canadians  who,  for  an  average  of  $100 
a  year,  an  outfit  of  clothing,  and  a  ration  of 
food,  entered  into  contracts  to  follow  the  Indians 
on  their  hunts,  buy  the  skins  of  freshly-killed 
animals,  cure  them,  and  bring  them  to  their  em- 
ployers in  the  spring.  The  ration  was  usually 
a  quart  of  sagamite  (hominy)  and  salt  pork  or 
venison  tallow.  Often  these  voyageurs  lived  on 
fish  and  maple  sugar  an  entire  winter  when 
other  food  was  not  to  be  obtained.  They  car- 
ried with  them  needles,  thread,  beads,  ribbon, 
tobacco,  and  a  supply  of  goods  for  trading. 
Their  worth  to  their  employers  depended  upon 
the  shrewdness  with  which  they  bargained. 
Blankets,  cloth,  calico,  guns,  camp  kettles,  axes, 
tomahawks,  knives,  looking  glasses,  animal  traps 
and  spears,  fishing  tackle,  ammunition,  liquor, 
ribbons,  paint,  beads,  tobacco,  and  silver  orna- 
ments were  the  articles  most  in  demand  by  the 
red  men  and  their  squaws.  John  Kinzie 's  silver 
bracelets,  rings,  earrings,  and  chains,  which  he 
fashioned  himself,  were  very  popular.  The  In- 
dians called  him  Shaw-ne-aw-kee — Silverman. 

The  French  voyageurs  were  sturdy,  enduring, 
resourceful,  light-hearted.  No  difficulties  baffled, 
no  hardship  discouraged  them.  They  formed 
dog-like  attachments  for  kind  masters,  and  were 
adored  by  the  Indians,  whose  long  winters  were 
made  less  dreary  by  the  music  of  violins,  and 
the  laughter  and  story-telling  of  the  voyageurs. 
Most  of  these  adventurers  took  Indian  wives, 
and  delighted  to  dress  them  in  the  short  blue 
skirts  and  jackets,  and  neat  kerchiefs  worn  by 
the  French  peasant  women  of  Canada. 

Jean  Baptiste  Pointe  de  Saible,  a  free  negro 
from  the  French  island  of  San  Domingo, — there 
seems  to  have  been  a  number  of  such  in  the 
French  settlements  on  the  Mississippi, — built  a 
cabin  and  began  to  trade  in  furs  with  the  In- 
dians of  Chicago  about  1779.  Upon  hearing  that 
the  United  States  intended  to  build  a  fort  here, 
he  sold  his  cabin  to  Le  Mai  and  went  back  to 
Peoria,  where  he  died  several  years  later. 

The  story  of  John  Kinzie,  the  Silverman,  is 
from  the  sketch  of  his  life  by  his  granddaughter, 
Mrs.  Eleanor  Kinzie  Gordon,  of  Savannah,  Ga.; 
and  of  the  Princess  Nelly,  Mrs.  Kjnzie,  from 
"Waubun, "  that  classic  of  the  Northwest,  writ- 
ten in  1855  by  Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie,  who  had 
the  story,  in  greater  detail  than  is  given  here, 
from  the  lips  of  her  mother-in-law.  Editions  of 
"Waubun"  were  issued  for  the  centennial  by 
half  a  dozen  publishers  of  Chicago  and  may  be 
had,  well  illustrated  and  bound,  for  75  cents. 

John  Kinzie  began  to  live  in  a  style  that  was 
considered  magnificent.  The  bark-thatched  cabin 
had  been  transformed  into  "the  Kinzie  Man 
sion. "  Much  of  the  material  for  flooring,  doors, 
windows,  and  veranda,  was  brought  from  Mon- 
treal, and  doubtless  a  Mackinac  boat-builder  did 
the  joinery.  It  was  a  long,  low  house  of  one 
story,  with  piazza  extending  along  its  front 


35 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


range  of  four  or  five  rooms,  and  was,  altogether 
sixty  feet  in  length.  A  broad  green  space  was 
enclosed  between  it  and  the  river,  and  was 
shaded  by  a  row  of  Lombardy  poplars,  grown 
from  saplings  that  were,  in  all  probability, 
brought  by  way  of  Montreal  from  France,  for 
the.  tree  is  nowhere  native  in  America.  Two 
great  cottonwoods  stood  in  the  rear  of  the  build- 
ing, and  there  was  a  fine  flower  and  vegetable 
garden,  a  dairy,  bake-house,  stables,  and  a  lodg- 
ing house  for  voyageurs  and  Indians. 


CABIN  ON  LEE'S  PLACE. 

In  1805  Charles  Jouett,  Indian  agent,  arrived 
and  built  the  Agency  House  on  the  Esplanade, 
west  of  the  fort.  This  building  was  called  Cob- 
web Castle,  possibly  because  of  its  slight  con- 
struction. It  consisted  of  two  big  storerooms 
divided  by  a  hall.  Verandas  extended  along 
both  front  and  rear.  A  family  named  Burns 
occupied  a  cabin  on  the  north  side  of  the  river 
west  of  the  Kinzie  mansion;  and  a  Mr.  Charles 
Lee  built  a  house  for  himself  south  of  the  fort. 
He  also  had  a  farm  at  what  is  now  Center  ave- 
nue and  Twenty-second  street  on  the  west  fork 
of  the  south  branch.  This  was  called  Lee 's 
Place  and  afterward  ' '  Hardscrabble. ' '  It  was 
in  charge  of  a  man  named  White.  These  were 
all  the  residents  of  Fort  Dearborn  settlement  at 
the  time  Mr.  Jouett  brought  his  bride  from 
Kentucky. 

A  Rough  Wedding  Journey. — The  Kinzie  and 
Whistler  children  were  never  tired  of  hearing 
about  Mr.  Jouett 's  wedding  journey.  It  was 
the  depth  of  the  winter  of  1809,  when  the  bride 
and  groom  started  on  horseback  from  Lexington, 
Ky.  They  crossed  the  Ohio  at  Louisville  and 
struck  across  the  wild  knobs  of  southern  Indiana 
to  the  old  French  post  at  Vincennes.  After  leav- 
ing this  town,  which  was  over  100  years  old 
and  was  then  the  capital  of  Indian  Territory, 
they  did  not  see  a  white  man  in  the  two-hun- 
dred-mile ride  to  Chicago.  Only  occasionally  did 
they  see  a  small  band  of  friendly  Piankeshas. 

With  them  was  a  black  servant  and  an  Indian 
guide.  The  weather  was  bitter.  Snow  lay  deep 
on  that  "prodigious  prarie, "  as  a  French  ex- 
plorer once  called  it.  It  extended,  almost  un- 
broken, from  Chicago  to  Cairo  on  the  Ohio. 
Every  night,  when  this  bridal  party  camped  in 
a  strip  of  timber  along  some  stream,  they  had 
to  keep  huge  fires  going  to  frighten  away  wolves 


and  wildcats.  At  last  they  reached  Fort  Dear- 
born. At  sight  of  that  rude  stronghold,  the  one 
really  good  house,  and  the  few  cabins  huddled 
before  the  blast  on  the  slough,  amid  stunted 
junipers  and  dwarf  willows,  with  the  stormy 
lake  breaking  in  wild  waves  over  the  drenched 
and  frozen  sand-bar,  the  bride  cried  for  her  old 
home  in  the  blue-grass  region  of  Kentucky. 

The  First  White  Child  Born  in  Chicago.— The 
Kinzie  mansion  was  full  of-  children.  Ellen 
Marion  had  arrived  in  December,  1804,  the  first 
white  child  born  in  Chicago.  A  year  later  a 
son  was  born  to  Lieutenant  Whistler,  and  was 
named  Meriwether  Lewis,  for  the  leader  of  the 
Lewis  and  Clark  expedition.  Maria  Kinzie, 
Eobert  A.  Kinzie,  and  John  Harrison  Whistler 
were  all  born  before  1810.  There  were  children 
in  the  Lee  and  Burns  homes  also,  and  in  the 
cabins  of  the  French  voyageurs,  so  there  were 
plenty  of  little  feet  to  go  flying  over  the  piazza 
floor  of  the  Kinzie  mansion  when  Shaw-ne-aw- 
kee,  the  Silverman,  played  his  violin. 

In  1810  the  Whistlers,  father  and  son,  were 
transferred  to  Fort  Wayne,  and  the  command  of 
Fort  Dearborn  was  given  to  Captain  Nathan 
Heald.  There  were  an  Indian  interpreter,  a  sur- 
geon, and  four  musicians  in  the  fort,  and  a  new 
Indian  agent  in  "Cobweb  Castle,"  for  Mr. 
Jouett  yielded  to  the  tears  of  his  homesick  bride 
and  went  back  to  Kentucky. 

And  there  was  a  young  Lieutenant  Helm,  who 
promptly  fell  in  love  with  and  married  pretty 
Margaret  McKillup,  Mrs.  Kinzie 's  sixteen-year- 
old  daughter.  These  lovers  must  have  had  to 
send,  by  an  Indian  or  a  French  voyageur,  to 
Kaskaskia,  then  the  capital  of  Illinois  Territory, 
for  a  license,  and  to  wait  quite  six  months  for 
it.  About  the  same  time  Colonel  Pierre  Menard, 
of  Kaskaskia,  was  preparing  to  marry  Angelique 
Saucier  with  all  the  social  eclat  and  church  cere- 
mony the  wealthy  town  could  muster.  How 
"society"  of  Kaskaskia  would  have  smiled  at 
the  simple  wedding  in  the  rude  fort  at  Chicago. 

The  Boyhood  of  Johnny  Kinzie. — Johnny  Kin- 
zie, Jr.,  found  plenty  to  do  and  learn  in  Chicago. 
Before  he  was  six  years  old,  he  knew  English, 
French,  and  three  Indian  dialects.  He  could 
fish  with  bone  hooks,  swim  in  Mud  Lake,  and 
trap  otter.  In  a  few  years  more  he  could  shoot 
,  gray  wolves  and  ducks  and  spear  muskrats,  and 
he  could  play  the  Indian  ball  game  of  Lacrosse. 
Once  he  found  a  spelling  book  in  a  chest  of  tea 
from  Mackinac  and  it  occurred  to  him  to  learn 
to  read.  His  teacher  was  his  cousin,  Robert 
Forsythe.  Like  Hiawatha  he  was  wiser  in  field 
and  wood  and  water  craft.  His  knowledge  of 
the  wilderness  was  to  stand  him  in  good  stead, 
for  his  occupation  in  early  life  was  to  be  that 
of  a  fur  trader  at  Mackinac,  and  Indian  agent 
at  Winnebago. 

For  the  little  girls,  there  was  knitting,  patch 
work,  and  playing  at  housekeeping.  Spinning 
and  weaving  were  not  done,  for  there  were  no 
sheep  in  the  country.  There  were  a  few  milch 


36 


cows  and  Madame  Kinzie's  dairy  was  famous; 
there  were  cattle  and  swine  on  Lee's  place, 
where  hay,  corn,  and  wheat  were  grown. 

It  was  always  a  great  day  for  the  little  maids 
when  the  voyageurs  began  to  arrive  in  the 
spring,  with  their  packs  in  canoes  or  on  ponies, 
for  their  Indian  wives  always  brought  quan- 
tities of  maple  sugar,  beaded  moccasions,  belts, 
and  pouches;  miniature  cradles,  tepees,  canoes, 
and  snow-shoes,  and  carved  wooden  dolls.  And, 
best  of  all,  there  were  beautiful  birch-bark 
boxes,  embroidered  with  colored  porcupine  quills 
and  filled  with  maple  sugar.  These  were  the 
first  boxes  of  candy  ever  sold  in  Chicago,  and 
the  price  of  one  was  the  choicest  ribbon  or 
string  of  beads  owned  by  the  small  purchaser. 

The  Friendly  Indians  and  Their  Stories. — No 
sick  or  hungry  Indian  was  ever  turned  away 
from  the  Kinzie  mansion.  The 
chiefs  of  the  region — Black 
Partridge,  Winnemeg,  Topene- 
bee,  and  Waubun,  made  the 
long  piazza  their  headquarters 
in  the  summer.  Some  gorgeous 
brave  was  usually  to  be  seen 
there,  basking  in  the  sun  and 
gazing  at  the  whitewashed  fort 
across  the  river,  where  sentinels 
paced  their  beats  outside  the 
stockade  and  the  military  band 
of  four  musicians  played  "Yan- 
kee Doodle"  in  the  evening. 
The  "Star  Spangled  Banner" 
and  "America"  had  not  then 
been  written.  While  the  squaws 
hoed  in  the  maize  fields,  and 
the  Indians  fished  in  the  rice- 
choked  river,  the  chiefs  sat 


were  to  go  down  to  Peoria,  a  week  's  journey  by 
canoe  on  the  Illinois." 

Black  Partridge  told  the  children  the  story  of 
"Starved  Rock."  He  himself  was  a  boy  when, 
in  1780,  the  Pottawatomies  had  exterminated  the 
Illinois  Indians  for  the  treachery  of  one  of  the 
tribe  in  assassinating  the  great  Ottawa  chief, 
Pontiac.  And  he  told  them  that'Pere  Marquette, 
an  "angel  from  heaven,"  had  once  spent  a  win- 
ter in  a  cabin  on  the  South  branch.  That  was 
a  long  time  ago,  but  the  Pottawatomies  still 
invoked  the  aid  of  that  gentle  spirit  in  all  their 
enterprises.  That  was  the  reason  they  had 
prospered. 

"But  there  are  no  more  great  chiefs  like 
Pontiac  and  no  more  saints  with  power  from 
heaven  like  Marquette?" 

"Yes,  there  is  a  great  Shawnee  chief,  Tecuin- 


THE  OLD  KINZIE  HOUSE,  CHICAGO. 


on  the  piazza,  with  Silverman's  children  play- 
ing at  their  feet.  Black  Partridge,  who  wore 
a  peace  medal,  given  by  General  Wayne,  and 
who  boasted  of  his  friendship  with  the  Silver- 
man's  family,  sometimes  condescended  to  tell  the 
children  a  story.  His  favorite  one,  put  into  our 
language,  began: 

"The  first  white  man  who  ever  lived  in  Chi- 
cago was  a  negro." 

"A  white  man  cannot  be  a  negro!"  the  chil- 
dren never  failed  to  exclaim. 

"Oh,  yes,  he  can.  Some  Frenchmen  are  quite 
black.  This  one  was  named  Jean  Baptiste  Pointe 
de  Saible.  He  was  a  very  fine  man,  very  rich 
in  furs,  usually  very  drunk.  But  he  was  not 
happy." 

"Why?" 

"He  wanted  to  be  a  chief  over  the  Pot- 
tawatomies and  that  was  even  too  much  for 
a  Frenchman  to  ask.  He  built  the  cabin  where 
this  house  now  stands  and  lived  here  many  years. 
When  he  heard  the  Long  Knives  (as  the  Indians 
called  all  American  pioneers)  were  coming  here 
to  build -a  fort,  he  was  very  sick  and  disgusted, 
for  he  was  altogether  French.  So  he  sold  the 
cabin  to  Le  Mai.  You  could  see  him  if  you 


seh,  who  lives  at  Tippecanoe  on  the  Wabash  with 
his  brother,  The  Prophet,  whose  sayings  come 
true."  Black  Partridge  spoke  mysteriously,  but 
he  promised  that  no  harm  should  come  to  the 
Silverman  's  family. 

Best  of  all  the  children  loved  to  hear  a  story 
that  Mrs.  Kinzie  sometimes  told  on  winter  even- 
ings. It  began  like  an  old  fairy  story,  and  it 
was  called  "Princess  Nelly  and  the  Silverman." 

For  eight  years  Princess  Nelly  and  the  Silver- 
man "lived  happy"  with  their  house  full  of 
merry  children.  Then  dark  days  came.  In  the 
year  1810,  after  the  chiefs  of  the  Northwestern 
tribes  had  returned  from  their  annual  journey 
for  gifts  to  Fort  Maiden,  Canada,  they  gathered 
for  council  at  Tippecanoe  on  the  Wabash.  The 
Miamis  alone  refused  to  go  to  this  council. 

The  Indians  knew,  before  the  white  men  of 
the  country,  before  even  the  officials  at  Wash- 
ington, that  Great  Britain  intended  to  provoke 
the  United  States  to  war  and  they  knew  what 
part  they  were  to  perform.  The  search  of  Amer- 
ican vessels  at  sea,  with  the  impressing  of  sea- 
men, and  the  stirring  up  of  the  Indians  on  the 
frontier,  were  the  irritants  the  English  intended 
to  use.  To  the  white  settlers  of  the  Northwest 


37 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


it  was  known  only  that  the  Indians  meant  mis- 
chief. From  the  Ohio  river,  north  and  west- 
ward, blockhouses  were  hastily  built  in  every 
settlement.  General  William  Henry  Harrison 
marched  700  troops  from  Vincennes  against 
Tecumseh.  In  August,  1811,  he  defeated  the 
Shawnee  chief  and  burned  his  village  of  Tippe- 
canoe,  which  stood  a  few  miles  above  the  pres- 
ent city  of  Lafayette,  Ind. 


Princess  Nelly  and  the  Silverman. 

This  is  the  story  that  Mrs.  Kinzie  used  to  tell 
to  the  children  of  the  Fort  Dearborn  settlement: 

"Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  little  boy 
named  Johnny.  He  was  born  in  Quebec  and  his 
father  was  a  Scotch  soldier,  who  had  come  over 
with  General  Montgomery  to  fight  in  the  French 
and  Indian  War.  As  Canada  became  British 
territory  when  peace  was  declared,  the  Scotch- 
man concluded  to  remain  and  become  a  mer- 
chant. He  died  when  Johnny  was  a  small  boy, 
and  after  a  few  years  his  mother  married  an- 
other Scotchman  named  Forsythe.  The  family 
then  removed  to  New  York,  a  town  that  Johnny 
did  not  like  very  well  because  so  many  of  the 
people  were  Dutch. 

"Besides,  he  had  to  go  to  school,  and  this  he 
considered  a  hardship.  Every  Monday  a  black 
slave  took  him  and  his  two  half-brothers  over 
to  Long  Island  to  the  school,  and  came  for  them 
every  Saturday  night.  One  Saturday  night 
Johnny  was  missing! 

"It  was  thought  the  Indians  had  stolen  him 
or  that  he  had  run  away  to  sea,  or  to  be  a  drum- 
mer boy  in  the  army.  Three  years  passed  and 
even  his  poor  mother  gave  him  up  for  dead. 
The  Revolutionary  war  was  on  and  business  was 
so  unsettled  that  Mr.  Forsythe  concluded  to 
move  to  Detroit  and  open  a  tavern,  for  that  re- 
mote place  had  grown  to  be  an  important  Brit- 
ish trading  post.  He  put  his  family  and  goods 
on  a  boat  and  sailed  up  the  Hudson  to  the  falls, 
crossed  to  Lake  George  and  went  up  to  Quebec, 
going  nearly  all  the  way  by  water.  In  Quebec 
he  went  into  a  silversmith's  to  buy  a  chain  for 
his  wife  and  there  he  saw,  sitting  over  a  jew- 
eler's melting  pot 

"  'Johnny  Kinzie!'  the  children  would  shout 
at  this  thrilling  crisis  of  the  story. 

"Yes,  Johnny  Kinzie,  grown  to  be  a  tall  lad 
of  sixteen  and  a  good  deal  ashamed  of  his 
thoughtless  behavior.  He  was  quite  ready  to  go 
to  Detroit  with  the  family  and  to  be  a  loving 
son  to  his  mother.  He  had  learned  the  trade  of 
silversmith  and  he  could  doubtless  turn  his  art 
to  good  account  in  Detroit,  where  the  Indians 
were  as  thick  as  blackberries  in  August  around 
the  fort.  He  was  soon  in  the  woods  trading 
his  silver  trinkets  for  furs.  After  a  good  many 
years  he  married  a  widow 

"'No,  he  married  the  Princess  Nelly!'  cor- 
rected the  children. 


"Well,  of  course,  he  married  the  Princess 
Nelly,  who  was  then  a  widow,  and  this  is  how 
it  happened: 

"About  the  time  that  Johnny  Kinzie  started 
to  Detroit,  that  was  in  1779,  I  think,  a  little 
nine-year-old  girl  named  Eleanor  Lytle — her  pet 
name  was  Nelly — was  playing  with  a  seven-year- 
old  brother  behind  a  log  cabin  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania. The  farm  was  not  far  from  the  fort 
at  Pittsburg,  and  the  Indians  were  usually  afraid 
to  trouble  the  settlers.  The  children  were  play- 
ing in  a  little  hollow  behind  the  cabin,  among 
some  trees  their  father  had  felled.  The  father 
was  away  helping  a  new  settler  raise  his  log 
house,  but  the  mother  could  be  heard  in  the 
house  singing  to  her  baby. 

"Suddenly  big  red  hands  were  clapped  over 
the  mouths  of  both  of  the  children  from  behind, 
and  they  were  carried  into  the  woods  by  two 
big  Indians,  who  were  so  tall  and  fierce  and 
splendidly  dressed  that  the  little  ones  knew  they 
were  not  the  Delawares  of  the  neighborhood. 
Signs  were  made  to  them  to  make  no  noise,  and 
they  were  afraid  to  disobey  their  savage  captors. 
They  were  given  jerked  beef  and  parched  corn 
to  eat,  and  when  the  party  stopped  for  the 
night  the  leader,  who  seemed  to  be  a  great  chief, 
directed  that  a  couch  of  long  dry  grass  be  pre- 
pared for  them. 

"After  that  Nelly  rode  in  front  of  the  chief 
on  his  big  horse.  It  was  several  days  before 
they  reached  Olean  Point,  on  the  Allegheny  river 
in  southwestern  New  York.  This  was  the  chief 
village  of  the  Senecas,  who  were  one  of  the 
tribes  of  the  warlike  Iroquois.  Nelly 's  protector, 
who  was  none  other  than  the  great  Chief  Corn- 
Planter  himself,  led  her  to  the  principal  lodge, 
where  his  mother,  'the  Old  Queen,'  lived.  To 
her  he  said: 

"  'My  mother,  I  bring  you  a  dear  child  to 
take  the  place  of  the  little  brother  who  died 
six  moons  ago.  She  shall  be  my  sister  and 
dwell  in  my  lodge.  Treat  the  boy  kindly  also, 
for  many  guns  and  horses  will  be  paid  to  ransom 
him.  Little  Sister  they  can  never  have  again.' 
"After  many  months  Mr.  Lytle  found  his 
children  in  the  Seneca  village.  The  boy  he  got 
back,  but  the  chief  would  not  give  up  Nelly. 

' '  '  No, '  when  her  father  offered  to  ransom 
her;  'she  is  my  sister,  adopted  into  the  tribe. 
She  is  dear  to  me,  and  I  will  not  part  with  her 
for  all  the  ransom  you  can  bring.'  The  father 
was  compelled  to  leave  her  there,  for  to  have 
tried  to  take  her  away  by  force  would  have 
aroused  all  the  Iroquois  to  war.  So  terrible  were 
these  tribes  in  warfare  that  for  a  hundred  years 
they  had  been  called  the  'Scourge  of  God.' 

"The  little  captive  missed  her  parents  and 
brothers  and  sisters  at  first,  but  her  big  brother, 
the  chief,  and  the  old  queen  loved  her  so  dearly 
and  treated  her  so  kindly  that  she  became  happy 
and  almost  forgot  her  old  home.  The  principal 


38 


THE   STOKY   OF   CHICAGO   AND   NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


seat  in  the  lodge  was  hers,  the  most  delicate 
food,  the  softest  bed,  and  the  finest  clothes.  So' 
active  and  bright  was  she,  so  full  of  energy  and 
fun,  that  the  chief  called  her  '  Little  Ship  Under 
Full  Sail. '  The  white  settlers,  who  now  and 
then  saw  her  riding  a  pony  beside  the  chief,  and 
who  knew  her  story,  called  her  Princess  Nelly 
of  the  Senecas,  for  this  tribe  of  the  Iroquois  was 
called  Senecas. 

"Four  years  passed.  Princess  Nelly  was  now 
thirteen.  The  revolution  was  over,  and  the 
Lytles,  in  the  hope  of  recovering  their  darling, 
went  to  Niagara.  Sir  William  Johnson,  the 
British  Indian  agent,  went  himself  to  Oloan,  and 
told  Chief  Corn-Planter  how  the  child's  mother 
had  sickened  for  grief.  The  father  had  given 
up  his  home  and  come  a  hundred  miles  just  on 
the  chance  of  seeing  Nelly. 

"The  chief  promised  he  would  bring  her  to 
Fort  Niagara  to  the  Iroquois  grand  council. 
They  could  see  her  there,  but  he  exacted  a  prom- 
ise that  no  effort  would  be  made  to  take  her 
from  him.  Nelly  promised  that  she  would  not 
leave  her  Indian  brother  without  his  permis- 
sion. 

"The  father  and  mother  waited  anxiously  in 
the  fort  for  the  promised  interview.  At  length 
the  Senecas  were  seen  coming  in,  Chief  Corn- 
Planter  and  Princess  Nelly  at  the  head.  The 
fair-haired  English  girl  sat  on  a  gaily  decked 
pony,  with  the  longest,  silkiest  mane  and  tail 
that  had  ever  been  seen  in  the  region.  And  she 
was  dressed  like  an  Indian  princess,  in  truth! 
She  wore  a  petticoat  of  blue  broadcloth,  bor- 
dered by  rows  of  bright  ribbon.  Her  jacket  of 
black  silk  was  covered  in  front  with  silver  but- 
tons and  brooches.  Strings  of  white  and  purple 
wampum  were  around  her  neck,  and  the  plaits 
of  her  yellow  hair  were  hung  with  beads.  Leg- 
gins  of  scarlet  cloth  and  moccasins  of  deer  skin, 
embroidered  with  colored  porcupine  quills,  com- 
pleted her  beautiful  costume. 

"The  chief,  true  to  his  promise,  took  his 
darling  sister  to  a  boat  and  crossed  the  Niagara 
river.  He  held  her  hand  all  the  way.  The  boat 
touched  the  shore  and  Nelly  sprang  up  the  grassy 
bank  below  the  fort,  and  ran  straight  into  her 
mother's  arms. 

"The  ladies  were  all  in  tears.  Even  the  uni- 
formed officers  brushed  the  mist  from  their  eyes. 
The  mother  gazed  across  the  child's  head  at  the 
chief  in  agonized  appeal.  With  an  eloquent  ges- 
ture of  sorrow  the  chief  stepped  back  into  the 
boat  and  cried,  as  he  pushed  away: 

"  'Farewell,  Little  Ship  Under  Full  Sail!  I 
go  back  to  my  lonely  lodge! '  He  had  given  her 
up  voluntarily. 

"Nelly  never  saw  her  big  Seneca  brother 
again,  but  she  never  forgot  him.  Her  father 
took  her  to  Detroit,  and  there,  when  she  was 
only  fourteen,  she  married  a  brave  British  of- 
ficer, Major  McKillup.  He  died  in  the  battle  of 
Fallen  Timbers,  when  fighting  against  General 


Anthony  Wayne,  with  the  Miami  Indians.  She 
was  very  sad  and  lonely  after  that,  so  she  mar- 
ried Johnny  Kinzie,  the  silverman,  and  came  to 
the  settlement  of  Fort  Dearborn  and  lived  happy 
ever  after. ' ' 

First  Attack  by  the  Indians. — Tecumseh  fled 
into  Canada.  The  tribes  scattered,  but  reap- 
peared at  the  various  posts  to  utter  insolent 
threats.  The  Pottawatomies,  who  had  never  be- 
fore given  any  trouble,  now  made  boasting 
speeches  around  Fort  Dearborn,  but  no  real  alarm 
was  felt  at  Chicago  until  April  7,  1812,  when  a 
band  of  eleven  Winnebagoes  appeared  at  the 
farm  house  on  Lee's  Place.  Mr.  White,  the 
manager,  and  a  French  voyageur  were  killed, 
I  ut  a  soldier  and  a  young  son  of  Mr.  Lee  escaped 
by  making  the  excuse  of  crossing  the  river  to'f  eed 
the  cattle. 

After  dark  they  crept  down  stream  and  gave 
the  alarm  to  the  Burns,  Ouilmette,  and  Kinzie 
families  and  the  Indian  agency.  A  cannon  was 
fired  to  warn  a  party  of  soldiers  who  had  gone 
out  to  Mud  Lake  to  fish.  They  made  their  way 
back  in  safety.  That  night  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  Chicago  slept  in  Fort  Dearborn.  The 
next  morning  the  bodies  of  Mr.  White  and  the 
Frenchman  were  found  on  the  farm,  and  the 
Indians  had  disappeared. 


CHICAOO  /N  18/2 

The   large   building  to   the   right   of   the   Agency 
House  is  Fort  Dearborn. 


39 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT, 


On  the  18th  of  June  the  United  States  de- 
clared war  on  Great  Britain,  and  on  the  16th 
of  July  Fort  Mackinac  was  captured  by  the 
British.  Neither  of  these  facts  was  known  in 
Fort  Dearborn,  however,  until  the  7th  of  August, 
when  Chief  Winnemeg,  of  the  Pottawatomies, 
who  was  friendly  to  the  Americans  and  especial- 
ly devoted  to  the  Kinzie  family,  arrived  with 
dispatches  from  General  Hull,  commander  of  the 
army  of  the  Northwest  at  Detroit.  Peremptory 
orders  were  sent  to  Captain  Heald  to  evacuate 
Fort  Dearborn,  and  to  proceed  to  Detroit  to  take 
part  in  the  proposed  campaign  against  Canada. 

In  Fort  Dearborn  were  Captain  Heald,  Lieu- 
tenant Helm,  Ensign  Kohan,  Doctor  Van  Voor- 
his,  the  surgeon,  the  sergeants,  corporals,  and 
musicians,  fifty  regulars  and  twelve  militiamen, 
beside  Mr.  Kinzie,  his  nephew,  Robert  Forsythe, 
Mr.  Charles  Lee,  and  Mr.  Burns,  ninety  men  in 
all.  The  Indian  agent,  Mr.  Irwin,  had  left  in 
July,  after  forwarding  $7,000  worth  of  skins  to 
Detroit.  The  French  voyageurs  remained  out- 
side, for  toward  them  the  Indians  displayed  no 
hostility.  There  were,  beside,  a  dozen  women 
and  twenty  children. 

Chief  Winnemeg  advised  instant  departure 
before  the  Indians  could  learn  of  the  intention 
to  abandon  the  fort.  This  plan  might  have  suc- 
ceeded, but  Captain  Heald  refused  to  believe 
that  the  Pottawatomies  were  unfriendly  and 
waited  until  600  warriors  had  gathered  about  the 
fort.  He  had  been  instructed  to  distribute  the 
goods  on  hand  among  them,  and  to  ask  a  friend- 
ly escort  to  Fort  Wayne. 

To  this  the  Indians  agreed  with  suspicious 
alacrity.  Mr.  Kinzie  and  the  younger  officers 
distrusted  them,  and  begged  Captain  Heald  to 
hold  the  fort.  Chief  Black  Partridge  came  into 
the  fort  and  gave  up  his  peace  medal,  given  him 
by  General  Wayne  at  the  treaty  of  Greenville, 
declaring  sorrowfully  that  the  reckless  young 
braves  were  determined  to  destroy  the  garrison 
and  that  he  could  not  hold  them  in  check.  There 
was  food  and  ammunition  enough  for  a  six 
month's  siege.  Events  proved,  however,  that 
the  fort  could  not  have  been  relieved  within  six 
months,  for,  on  the  16th  of  August,  twenty-four 
hours  after  the  massacre  at  Fort  Dearborn,  the 
British  captured  Detroit,  and  for  two  years  the 
Northwest  was  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  Indians. 

On  the  13th  of  August  Captain  William  Wells, 
Indian  agent  at  Fort  Wayne,  and  an  Indian 
fighter  of  renown  (Wells  street  is  named  for 
this  great  pioneer),  arrived  with  thirty  Miamis 
as  an  escort.  With  John  Kinzie,  Captain  Wells 
insisted  that  the  whisky  and  ammunition  in  the 
fort  should  be  destroyed.  Large  quantities  of 
both  were  thrown  into  the  river.  This  made 
the  Indians  furious  and  they  howled  and  danced 
around  the  fort  all  that  last  dreadful  night. 

The  little  company  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
people  in  Fort  Dearborn  knew  they  would  have 
to  fight  their  way  out  and  across  the  Pot- 


tawatomie  Country  to  Fort  Wayne.  There  were 
only  forty  fighting  men  altogether,  for  a  num- 
ber of  soldiers  had  sickened  in  the  heat  of 
August.  But  Captain  Wells  thought  he  could 
depend  upon  the  bravery  of  his  thirty  Miamis. 

Departure  from  Fort  Dearborn. — At  9  o'clock 
on  the  morning  of  August  15  the  garrison  of 
Fort  Dearborn  marched  out.  Mrs.  Kinzie  and 
her  young  children,  under  the  protection  of 
Chief  Topenebee,  were  placed-  in  a  Mackinac 
boat  to  be  taken  to  Saint  Joseph.  French 
voyageurs  rowed  the  boat  to  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  There  they  were  ordered  to  stop  by  the 
chief,  who  hoped  to  save  Mr.  Kinzie  and  Mrs. 
Kinzie 's  daughter,  Mrs.  Helm,  who  had  insisted 
upon  remaining  with  her  soldier  husband.  Mr. 
Kinzie  hoped  that  his  presence  with  the  garri- 
son would  serve  to  restrain  the  savages,  for 
they  all  loved  the  genial  Silverman. 

In  breathless  agony,  Mrs.  Kinzie — poor 
"Princess  Nelly" — sat  in  the  boat  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  and  watched  her  husband  and  eldest 
daughter  ride  to  what  seemed  to  be  certain 
death.  From  there  she  saw  the  smoke  and 
heard  the  firing  during  the  massacre. 
.  The  fugitives  marched  bravely  down  the  old 
Indian  trail  along  the  lake  shore.  Captain 
Wells  led  with  fifteen  Miamis  and  Captain 
Heald  brought  up  the  rear.  The  women  and 
children  and  six  soldiers  were  in  the  baggage 
wagons  in  the  middle.  Mrs.  Helm,  Mrs.  Heald, 
and  Mrs.  Lee  rode  beside  their  husbands  on 
horseback,  Mrs.  Lee  soothing  a  fretful  infant 
in  her  arms.  The  band  played  the  Dead  March. 
Five  hundred  Pottawatomies,  who  had  agreed 
to  go  with  the  fugitives  and  furnish  them  safe 
escort,  rode  on  prancing  ponies,  while  the  squaws 
swarmed  into  the  abandoned  fort  for  plunder. 

The  Massacre. — When  a  half  mile  from  the 
fort  gate,  the  Pottawatomies  suddenly  struck 
across  a  low  sand  ridge  to  the  west  of  the  trail 
and  disappeared.  A  mile  further  down  the  lake 
shore,  an  ambuscade  opened  fire.  On  the  first 
alarm  the  troops  were  swung  into  line.  In  the 
confusion,  the  Miamis,  on  whom  Captain  Wells 
had  depended,  fled  across  the  prairie  in  a  panic 
of  fright.  The  women,  children,  and  sick 
soldiers  were  hastily  collected  under  a  cotton- 
wood  tree  and  there,  on  a  spot  that  has  been 
identified  as  the  foot  of  Eighteenth  street,  forty 
white  men  faced  600  howling  savages.  The 
late  George  M.  Pullman  marked  the  site  of  this 
heroic  stand  with  a  statuary  group  in  bronze. 

Within  an  hour  the  dreadful  scene  was  over. 
Only  twenty-five  men  and  eleven  women  and 
children  were  left  of  all  who  marched  out  of 
Fort  Dearborn.  Several  of  these  were  sick  and 
wounded,  and  died  or  were  killed  by  the  In- 
dians after  being  carried  back  to  the  fort. 
Captain  Wells  perished  after  having  killed  eight 
Indians.  Ensign  Rohan  and  Doctor  Van  Voor- 
his  were  dead;  Captain  and  Mrs.  Heald  and 
Lieutenant  and  Mrs.  Helm  were  all  dangerously 


40 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


wounded.  Mr.  Lee  and  his  young  daughter  and 
son  had  been  killed,  and  Mrs.  Lee  and  her  in- 
fant were  borne  off  as  prisoners  by  an  Indian 
chief.  The  Burns  family  was  wiped  out.  The 


THE    FORT    DEARBORN    MASSACRE    MONU- 
MENT. 
(Black  Partridge  Rescuing   Mrs.   Helm.) 

survivors  surrendered  upon  condition  that,  if 
not  ransomed  by  friends,  they  should  be  de- 
livered as  prisoners  of  war  at  the  nearest 
British  post. 

John  Kinzie  was  unhurt  and  every  member 
of  his  family  except  Mrs.  Helm  escaped  injury. 
They  all  returned  to  the  Kinzie  mansion  and, 
for  three  days,  while  many  Indians  of  distant 
tribes  came  in,  were  guarded  by  Chiefs  Black 
Partridge,  Winnemeg,  and  Topenebee.  Once  a 
band  of  Indians  from  the  Wabash  went  to  the 
house  for  the  purpose  of  massacreing  all  of 
them,  but  were  stopped  by  a  whoop  from  a 
big  chief  of  the  Forest  Pottawatomies,  who 
bounded  into  the  house.  It  was  the  famous 
Billy  Caldwell,  "The  Sauganash,"  or  English- 
man, as  he  called  himself.  His  father  had  been 
a  British  officer  at  Detroit.  For  twenty  years 
after  "The  Sauganash"  was  to  use  his  elo 
quence  to  restrain  the  savage  passions  of  his 
red  tribesmen. 

The  Kinzie  family  got  off  in  safety  to  St. 
Joseph.  John  Kinzie  himself  remained  among 
the  Pottawatomies  for  weeks,  disguised  as  an 
Indian,  to  try  to  save  some  of  the  pelts  in  his 
trading  house.  He,  with  the  two  surviving  offi- 


cers of  the  fort,  surrendered  himself  to  the 
British  at  Detroit. 

The  next  day  after  the  massacre  of  the  gar- 
rison of  Fort  Dearborn  the  Indians  burned  the 
fort  and  agency  building.  The  blackened  ruins 
crumpled  on  a  knoll,  while  a  mile  and  a  half 
below,  the  bones  of  heroes  were  left  to  bleach- 
on  the  sand.  The  Pottawatomies  danced  a  war 
dance  and  hurried  away  to  help  the  British  in 
Canada. 

Once  more  the  site  of  Chicago  reverted  to 
the  wilderness. 


Suggestions  to  Teacher  and  Pupils. — Schools 
of  Chicago  may  make  an  historical  pilgrimage, 
within  the  limits  of  the  city,  to  the  scenes  de- 
scribed in  this  chapter.  Better  than  any  book 
or  written  account  of  this  massacre,  is  the 
bronze  statuary  group  erected  by  the  late 
George  M.  Pullman  at  Eighteenth  street  and 
Prairie  avenue.  The  group  represents  the  mo- 
ment when  young  Mrs.  Helm,  Mrs.  Kinzie 's 
daughter,  was  attacked  by  an  Indian.  She  tries 
to  seize  his  scalping  knife.  The  chief  who  came 
o  her  rescue  was  Black  Partridge.  The  four 
bronze  panels  in  low  relief,  on  the  granite 
pedestal,  illustrate  four  scenes — the  giving  up 
of  his  peace  medal  in  the  fort  by  Black  Par- 
tridge; the  march  from  the  fort;  the  battle,  and 
the  death  of  Captain  Wells.  The  prostrate 
figure  on  the  plinth  is  Dr,  Van  Voorhis,  and  the 
child  with  outstretched  arms,  typifies  the  twelve 
children  who  were  tomahawked  in  an  army 
wagon.  Every  figure  on  this  wonderful  monu- 
ment may  be  identified. 

There  are  several  versions  of  the  story  of  the 
massacre  of  Fort  Dearborn,  the  best  known  ones 
inspired  by  various  members  of  the  Kinzie  fam 
ily.  The  monument  group  is  based  on  Mrs. 
Helm's  account  of  her  experiences  in  the  fight, 
as  related  in  "Waubun. "  While  it  is  romantic 
and  heroic,  the  accuracy  of  the  details  has  been 
questioned.  Other  versions  of  the  tragedy  have 
been  given  by  Chief  Alexander  Robinson,  Chief 
Simon  Pokagon  (then  a  very  young  boy),  by  a 
French  voyageur,  and  by  a  young  son  of  Cap- 
tain Heald.  Mr.  Dilg  has  collected  ninety  dif 
ferent  reports  of  the  tragedy,  matter  enough  to 
fill  a  volume! 

The  site  of  Fort  Dearborn  is  at  the  foot  of 
Michigan  avenue.  There  on  the  W.  M.  Hoyt 
building,  on  the  north  wall  which  faces  the  Rush 
street  bridge,  may  be  seen  a  marble  tablet  fill- 
ing in  a  lofty,  arched  window  opening,  in  com- 
memoration of  the  location  of  Fort  Dearborn. 
The  site  of  the  old  Kinzie  house  is  opposite  the 
fort  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river  at  Kinzie 
and  St.  Clair  streets,  on  the  spot  now  occupied 
by  Kirk's  soap  factory.  The  cabin  on  Lee's 
place  was  at  Center  avenue  and  Twenty-second 
street  on  the  west  fork  of  the  south  branch. 


41 


CHAPTER  VL 


ON  THE  FRONTIER. 

(1816-1834.) 

Students  of  this  History  should  visit  the  Chi- 
cago Historical  society  building  at  142  Dearborn 
avenue.  There  are  a  model  of  Fort  Dearborn,  a 
ground  plan,  pen  and  water-color  drawings,  many 
Indian  relics  and  portraits  of  Captain  Wells, 
Lieutenant  Whistler,  and  John  H.  Kinzie.  There 
are  in  existence  no  portraits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Kinzie,  "Princess  Nelly  and  the  Silverman." 

The  "Waubansia  Stone,"  a  two-ton  granite 
boulder,  with  a  carved  Indian  face,  which  re- 
sembles Aztee  work  in  Mexico,  and  which  was 
found  on  the  site  of  Fort  Dearborn  by  the 
officers  sent  to  build  it,  now  serves  as  the  cap 
stone  of  a  fountain  on  a  private  lawn,  between 
Erie  and  Huron  streets,  on  Lincoln  Park  boule- 
vard. This  pre-historic  rock  carving  is  the  old- 
est authentic  relic  of  Chicago,  and  should  be  in 
possession  of  the  Chicago  Historical  society. 

The  name  Chicago,  as  applied  to  a  pioneer  set- 
tlement on  the  present  site  of  the  city,  appeared 
in  a  school  text-book  for  the  first  time  in  Wood- 
bridge  's  Geography  in  the  year  1821.  This  book 
was  in  use  in  the  schools  in  New  England.  In 
Middletown,  Conn.,  where  sixteen-year-old  Ellen 
Marion  Kinzie  was  attending  a  private  school, 
this  official  recognition  of  Chicago  must  have 
been  a  matter  of  pride.  No  doubt  she  pointed 
it  out  to  her  schoolmate,  little  Juliette  Magill, 
the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  citizen  of  the  town. 

The  place  was  not  marked  by  a  dot  but  by  a 
hollow  square,  indicating  the  location  of  the 
fort,  and  around  it,  on  either  side  of  a  forked 
stream  which  entered  the  lake,  were  clusters  of 
triangles  which  stood  for  Indian  lodges.  There  * 
was  plenty  of  room  for  this  pictorial  represen- 
tation of  the  frontier  post,  for  behind  it 
stretched  a  vast  plain  on  which  were  scattered 
the  names  of  Indian  tribes. 

St.  Anthony's  Falls  was  indicated,  Prairie  du 
Chien,  St.  Louis,  and  Kaskaskia;  Fort  Jefferson 
below  St.  Louis,  Fort  Armstrong  on  Hock  Island 
in  the  Mississippi,  and  Fort  Madison  just  above 
the  mouth  of  the  Des  Moines.  West  of  that 
point  the  word  "unexplored"  sprawled  across 
the  map.  Ellen  Kinzie  was  to  go  home  when- 
ever her  brother  John,  who  was  learning  the  fur 
trading  business  in  Mr.  Astor's  trading  house 


at  Michilimackinac,  could  come  for  her.  To- 
gether the  two  girls  traced  the  route  of  the  long 
journey  she  would  have  to  make — to  Philadel- 
phia by  steamboat,  thence  through  Pittsburg  to 
Cleveland  by  stage,  and  around  the  lakes  by 
sailing  vessel. 

"My,  if  I  had  to  go  to  Chicago  to  live,  as  you 
do,  Ellen,  I'd  die  of  a  broken  heart,"  sighed 
Juliette. 

In  just  nine  years  Juliette  Magill  married 
Ellen's  brother  John  and  went  with  him  to  a 


GEN.    JEAN    BAP- 
TISTE  BEAUBIEN. 


BLACK    HAWK. 


place  that  was  not  on  the  map  at  all — Fort 
Winnebago,  at  the  portage  between  the  Fox  and 
Wisconsin  rivers,  where  Portage,  Wis.,  stands 
today.  And  far  from  dying  of  a  broken  heart, 
Mrs.  Juliette  Kinzie  found  frontier  life  so  in- 
teresting that  she  wrote  a  book  about  it — the 
now  famous  "Waubun. " 

What  kind  of  a  home  was  this  first  white 
child  born  in  Chicago  returning  to,  after  nine 
years  of  exile  in  Detroit  and  the  East?  Fort 
Dearborn  had  been  rebuilt  in  1816.  In  the  same 
year  that  the  massacre  at  Fort  Dearborn  oc- 
curred— 1812 — the  first  Territorial  Legislature  of 
Illinois  met  at  Kaskaskia.  The  assembly  con- 
sisted of  twelve  men,  two  from  each  of  the  six 
counties  that  had  been  organized  in  Illinois 
along  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers.  The  chief 
subject  of  discussion  at  that  session  was  how 
best  to  defend  the  settlements  of  southern  Illi- 
nois against  the  northern  Indians. 

From  Shawneetown  on  the  Ohio  to  Alton  on 
the  Mississippi  there  were,  perhaps,  10,000  white 
settlers  in  Illinois,  of  which  possibly  5,000  were 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


in  Kaskaskia.  Nine-tenths  of  the  Illinois  terri- 
tory was  a  wilderness  held  by  the  Indians.  At 
Galena,  below  Prairie  du  Chien,  the  lead  mines 
were  being  worked  by  capitalists  of  Kaskaskia 
and  St.  Louis,  supplies  going  up  and  the  metal 
coming  down  by  the  river.  The  mines  being  in 
the  Sac,  Fox,  and  Winnebago  country,  much 
anxiety  was  felt  for  their  safety  when  the  sec- 
ond war  with  England  broke  out. 

It  was  decided,  therefore,  to  march  a  militia 
force  northward.  Governor  Ninian  Edwards  of 
Illinois  territory  headed  a  volunteer  party  of 
380  men  in  a  march  to  Peoria.  During  the  next 
year  a  force  of  800  marched  north,  built  Fort 
Clark  on  the  shore  of  Peoria  Lake,  and  explored 
the  Illinois  river.  No  Indians  were  encountered 
on  either  campaign,  for  they  had  all  gone  into 
Canada  to  help  the  British.  Except  for  the 
massacre  at  Fort  Dearborn  and  the  border  forays 
of  Chief  Black  Hawk,  Illinois  was  entirely  out- 
side the  arena  of  the  war  of  1812,  which  was, 
as  you  know,  mainly  a  naval  war.  » 

But  over  1,200  pioneers  of  southern  Illinois 
had  seen  and  were  enchanted  by  Peoria  Lake 
and  the  bluffs,  woods,  meadows,  and  fertile  corn 
fields  of  the  Illinois  river  valley,  just  as  the 
French  explorers  had  been  one  hundred  and 
forty  years  before.  The  best  land  in  the  Missis- 
sippi bottom,  between  Kaskaskia  and  Alton,  had 
been  taken  up,  while  the  low  lands  along  the 
Ohio  were  malarial  and  liable  to  floods. 

The  Peopling  of  Northern  Illinois.  Peace  was 
no  sooner  declared  than  hundreds  sought  homes 
in  the  region  immediately  behind  Chicago.  Jean 
Baptiste  Beaubien,  a  French  trader  who  had 
come  down  from  Mackinac  in  1813,  and  who  was 
living  in  the  Lee  house  south  of  the  burned  fort, 
supplied  these  new  settlers  with  goods  from 
Mackinac.  It  was  very  quickly  seen  by  these 
newcomers,  as  it  had  been  seen  by  the  French, 
that  Chicago  was  the  terminus  of  a  natural  thor- 
oughfare between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Great 
Lakes.  Indeed  this  had  been  recognized  by  the 
very  able  men  in  charge  of  the  public  affairs  of 
Illinois  territory  at  Kaskaskia.  Through  their 
influence  at  Washington  had  been  secured,  in  the 
treaty  of  peace  that  was  signed  with  Great 
Britain  and  with  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest, 
the  grant  from  the  Pottawatomies  of  a  right 
of  way  along  the  Illinois  river  to  Chicago,  for 
the  construction  of  a  military  road  or  canal,  as 
might  seem  best. 

Petitions  began  to  pour  in  to  President  Mon- 
roe from  the  settlements  along  the  Mississippi 
to  improve  the  port  at  Chicago  and  to  construct 
a  land  or  water  highway  from  Lake  Michigan  to 
the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Illinois  river. 

This  looks  now  like  a  big  undertaking,  but 
the  whole  country  had  entered  upon  an  optimis- 
tic era,  due  to  the  feeling  that,  at  last,  we  were 
to  be  let  alone.  England  had  definitely  retired 
to  molest  us  no  more. 


The  war  was  no  sooner  over  than  home  manu- 
facturing developed  and  internal  improvements 
of  enormous  cost  were  projected.  The  Erie  canal 
was  begun  to  connect  the  Hudson  with  Lake 
Erie.  When  that  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
of  artificial  waterway  should  be  completed — as 
it  was  in  1825 — the  Great  Lakes  would  rival  the 
Ohio  as  a  route  to  the  west.  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  that  President  Monroe  recom- 
mended that  Fort  Dearborn  be  rebuilt,  and  a 
survey  made  for  a  canal. 

The  fort  was  rebuilt  in  1816,  on  the  site  of 
the  former  one,  but  of  hewn  logs,  lumber,  and 
brick,  and  was  of  much  better  construction 
than  the  first  fort. 

John  Kinzie  returned  with  his  family — less 
prosperous  now,  for  he  had  lost  practically  every- 
thing by  the  four  years  of  war  and  idleness,  and 
he  was  past  the  prime  of  life.  For  rivals  in 
the  fur  trade  he  had  Jean  Baptiste  Beaubien  and 
a  Mr.  Crafts.  The  American  Fur  Company  of 
John  Jacob  Astor  was  soon  to  have  a  monopoly 
of  the  fur  trade  of  the  Northwest,  and  inde- 
pendent traders  were  to  become  employees.  Dr. 
Alexander  Walcott,  the  new  Indian  agent,  ar- 


MRS.    MARY    GALLO- 
WAY  CLYBOURNE. 


MARK    BEAUBIEN. 


rived.  The  Kinzies,  the  Beaubiens,  and  Dr.  Wal- 
cott, with  various  traders,  many  of  whom  were 
birds  of  passage,  made  up  the  civilian  popula- 
tion for  Chicago  for  the  next  several  years.  This 
was  the  Chicago  to  which  Ellen  Marion  Kinzie 
returned,  and  where  she  married  Dr.  Walcott  in 
1823. 

The  conditions  of  trade  were  somewhat 
changed.  Trade  was  carried  on  with  Mackinac, 
but  it  was  also  more  or  less  active  with  St.  Louis 
and  Kaskaskia,  by  the  historic  route  established 
by  the  French  explorers.  Peltries  went  over  the 
portage  and  down  the  river,  and  flour,  salt,  salt 
meat,  and  lead  for  bullets  came  back.  The  Mis- 
sissippi between  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans 
swarmed  with  bull-boats,  flat-boats,  and  keel- 
boats.  In  1818  a  passenger  in  a  steamboat  from 
New  Orleans  counted  650  such  boats  laden  with 
goods,  on  his  voyage  up  the  river.  Many  of 
these  went  on  up  to  Prairie  du  Chien  and  Ga- 
lena. 

Chicago  was  far  from  this  busy  highway,  and 
far  from  the  eastern  stage  roads.  For  fifteen 
years  our  city  was  to  remain  a  mere  frontier 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


trading  post,  while  the  wave  of  migration,  far 
to  the  south,  was  breaking  roads  to  the  west. 

Chicago  must  have  felt  the  wave  lapping  its 
feet  when  James  Galloway  arrived  overland  from 
Ohio  in  1824.  The  story  of  his  journey  was  a 
nine  days'  wonder.  At  Sandusky  he  had  put  a 
gun,  tomahawk,  steel  traps,  blankets,  bacon,  and 
cornmeal  in  a  wagon.  He  shot  game  to  eat  on 
the  way,  and  sold  the  peltries  in  Fort  Wayne. 
From  there  he  crossed  Indiana  and  Michigan  to 
St.  Joseph,  and  followed  the  Indian  trail  around 
the  end  of  the  lake.  He  toiled  through  the  sand 
dunes,  where  Michigan  City  now  stands,  and 
got  stuck  in  the  mud  of  the  Calumet  marsh.  He 
v.-ent  on  nearly  one  hundred  miles  west  of  Chi- 
cago to  the  grand  rapids  of  the  Illinois  river, 
and,  on  the  site  of  Marseilles,  staked  out  a  claim 
in  the  military  road  strip. 

The  next  year  he  went  back  to  Ohio  for  his 
family,  bringing  them  around  by  the  Great 
Lakes.  After  incredible  hardships,  extending 
over  three  years,  and  including  shipwreck,  an 
attempt  at  confiscation  of  his  goods  by  the  Amer- 
ican Fur  Trading  Company,  a  bitter  winter  in 
the  dilapidated  farmhouse  on  Lee 's  place,  and 
an  Indian  scare,  Mr.  Galloway  saw  his  family 
safely  installed  in  a  new  log  cabin  on  his  claim, 
and  was  duly  thankful  that  they  were  all  alive, 

A  Pioneer  Romance.  In  the 
same  year — 1824 — the  Cly- 
bourne  family  arrived  from 
Virginia,  and  built  two  cabins 
on  the  North  Branch,  where 
Elston  avenue  was  afterwards 
cut  through.  Archibald  Cly- 
bourne  thought  there  was  a 
good  opening  in  Chicago  for 
the  butcher  business.  This 
belief  took  a  good  deal  more 
faith  than  you  would  think, 
for  there  was  very  little  money 
in  the  country,  and  the  fort, 
which  had  become  his  chief, 
customer,  was  garrisoned  only 
a  part  of  the  time.  Besides, 
he  had  to  go  as  far  as  Decatur 
or  Springfield  on  the  Sanga- 
inon  river  for  cattle  and  hogs. 
The  Galloway  house  on  the 
Illinois  was  one  of  the  few 
stopping  places  on  these  journeys,  and  Mary  Gal- 
loway one  of  the  few  girls  he  had  a  chance  of 
meeting.  In  1829  he  installed  her  as  mistress  of 
one  of  the  cabins  on  Clybourne  place  and  the  Cly- 
bournes  took  rank  as  a  "first  family"  of  Chicago. 

Mark  Beaubien,  a  younger  brother  of  Jean 
*Baptiste,  who  was  destined  to  contribute  to  the 
social  gaiety  of  the  little  settlement  for  many 
years  to  come,  arrived  from  Detroit  in  1826, 
coming  over  the  old  Indian  trail,  through  the 
woods  in  an  ox  wagon.  He  had  to  hire  an  In- 
dian to  show  him  the  way. 

Across  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  arid 
extending  as  far  north  as  the  Illinois  river,  a 
stream  of  migration  from  neighboring  states  set 
in  after  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  con- 


tinued, almost  without  interruption,  for  a  third 
of  a  century.  Instead  of  coming  by  way  of  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  as  earlier  settlers 
had  come  from  the  seaboard  colonies,  these  new- 
comers from  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Kentucky  made 
the  journey  in  rude  covered  wagons  called 
"prairie  schooners."  Very  rarely  were  horses 
used.  Oxen  drew  their  groaning,  creaking  bur- 
dens through  the  woods,  and  patiently  chewed 
their  cuds  while  fallen  timbers  were  cleared  out 
of  the  way,  or  the  clumsy  wheels  were  pried 
from  the  mud  with  rails.  Every  stream  to  be 
crossed  was  a  'Separate  problem  to  these  re-» 
sourceful  pioneers,  for  there  were  no  bridges 
and  few  ferries. 

Lincoln  Family  Typical  Emigrants. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  the  Lincoln  family 
emigrated  from  Indiana  in  1829.  Abe  Lincoln,  a 
tall,  ungainly  youth  of  20,  in  buckskin  breeches 
and  coonskin  cap,  urged  the  slow  oxen  with  a 
hickory  gad,  and  cracked  jokes  over  the  dis- 
heartening difficulties  that  beset  the  way.  The 
family  settled  on  a  wooded  bluff,  overlooking 
the  Sangamon  River,  for  the  pioneer  who  would 
prosper  always  located  where  there  were  trees 
and  running  water.  Abe  split  rails  to  inclose 
a  fifteen-acre  field,  broke  the  sod  of  the  prairie 
and  planted  corn,  while  ' '  neighbors, ' '  from  25 


THE    LIXCOLX   CAI5IX.    (Copyright.    S.    S.    McChnv   Co. 


Situated  near  Charleston,  111.     Built  in  1831  by 
Abraham  Lincoln  's  father. 

miles  away,  helped  raise  the  log  cabin.  Abe, 
being  then  21,  cut  loose  from  home  and  started 
out  to  find  his  niche  in  the  life  of  this  limitless 
West.  The  story  is  typical  of  the  peopling  of 
Illinois. 

Northern  Illinois  got  tho  fringe  of  this  mi- 
gration. Galena  became  a  thriving  settlement 
on  account  of  the  mines.  Adventurers  came  up 
the  Mississippi  to  Galena  in  steamboats  after 
1825,  just  six  years  after  the  admission  of  Illi- 
nois as  a  state.  In  the  same  year  a  Mr.  Kellogg 
broke  a  trail  through  the  woods  from  Fort  Clark, 


44 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


on  Peoria  Lake,  to  Galena,  and  others  soon  fol- 
lowed. This  was  the  country  of  the  Sacs  and 
Foxes,  tribes  whose  very  names  had  blanched 
the  chiefs  of  the  French  on  the  Mississippi  a 
hundred  years  before,  and  who  had  added  to 
their  terrible  reputation  in  the  war  of  1812, 
when  fighting  with  the  British.  But  now  they 
seemed  to  have  laid  all  animosity  aside.  From 
1816  to  1832  the  Sacs  acted  as  guides  to  white 
prospectors,  escorted  money  and  valuable  goods, 
and,  lashing  canoes  together,  ferried  wagons 
across  the  Rock  river  at  Dixon. 

The  settlement  nearest  Chicago,  in  the  late 
twenties,  was  Naperville,  thirty  miles  to  the 
west.  Scattered  farms,  many  miles  apart,  lay 
along  the  Illinois  and  its  tributaries.  Mr.  Gur- 
don  S.  Hubbard,  an  agent  of  the  American  Fur 
Company,  had  opened  a  trail  from  Chicago  to 
Shawneetown,  on  the  Ohio,  and  had  a  depot  for 
goods  for  the  Indian  trade,  and  fifty  pack  ponies, 


stock  of  the  company  was  sold.  To  encourage 
the  project,  the  government  donated  large  blocks 
of  land  in  the  canal  strip  along  the  Illinois  to 
the  state.  Still  there  were  no  buyers  of  stock, 
and  the  state  was  too  poor  to  contribute  any 


FORT  PAYNE  AT  NAPERVILLE,  1832. 

thing  from  its  treasury,  although  the  need  for 
a  waterway  was  felt  at  Kaskaskia  as  keenly  as 
at  Chicago. 

It  was  in  1829  that  the  state 
legislature,  sitting  in  the  new 
capital  of  Illinois,  which  some 
practical  joker  had  caused  to 
be  named  Vandalia,  on  the 
ground  that  a  tribe  of  Indians 
called  Vandals  had  once  lived 
there,  appointed  a  canal  com- 
mission to  locate  a  route  for  a 
canal  to  connect  Lake  Michigan 
with  the  Illinois  river,  to  lay 
out  towns,  reserve  and  sell  lots, 
and  apply  the  proceeds  to  the 
cost  of  the  canal. 

Chicago  Platted  by  Canal 
Commissioners.  —  Chicago,  in 
the  canal  survey  of  1830,  was 
described  as  a  settlement  Qf 


WOLF   POINT,    1832. 
Where  Market  and  Canal  Streets 
now  cross  Kinzie. 

at  what  is  now  Danville,  on  the 
Big  Vermilion. 

But  now,  as  to  Chicago  itself. 
Although  Illinois  had  been  ad- 
mitted  to    the   Union   in    1818, 
civil   rule  was  not   extended  to 
our  city  until   1823,   when   the 
region    was    described   as   "at- 
tached  to   Fulton  County,"   of      _ 
which    Peoria    was    the    county  CHICAGO  IN  1831, 
seat.    An  election  was  held  here 
in  that  year  in  the  Indian  agency  house.    The  head 
of    nearly   every   white   household   held   some   civil 
office,  but  the  duties  and  salaries  were  both  nom- 
inal. 

When,  in  1825,  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 
Canal  Company  was  incorporated  for  $1,000,000 
capital,  a  few  sangine  souls  began  to  hope  that 
Chicago  was  destined  to  future  greatness.  No 


SHOWING  THE  SECOND  FORT  DEARBORN. 

fifteen  houses  and  a  fort,  not  always  gar- 
risoned, located  on  Sec.  9,  Tp.  39,  Range 
14.  As  the  terminus  of  the  proposed  canal 
it  was  platted,  its  boundaries  being  fixed  at 
State  street,  Madison,  Desplaines,  and  Kin- 
zie, or  the  north  bank  of  the  river.  East  of 
State  and  south  to  Madison,  in  the  southward 
bend  of  the  river,  lay  Fort  Dearborn  Govern- 


45 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


ment  Reservation,  which  could  not  be  included 
in  the  town.  The  whole  had  an  area  of  three- 
eighths  of  a  square  mile  and  embraced  Wolf 
Point  at  the  forking  of  the  river.  A  number  of 
lots  were  sold  at  auction  by  the  canal  commis- 
sioners. The  choicest  brought  $200,  while  some, 
' '  away  out  on  the  prairie  at  Madison  and  La 
Salle, "  sold  as  low  as  $1.25. 

"Father  John  Kinzie, "  as  he  had  come  to  be 
called,  had  died  two  years  before  at  the  age  of 
sixty-five.  During  the  last  five  years  of  his 
life  he  had  served  the  little  settlement  as  justice 
of  the  peace,  in  the  absence  of  ministers  per- 
forming marriage  services,  and  settling  disputes 
with  the  kindness  and  fairness  he  had  ever  dis- 
played in  his  Indian  trading  days.  The  old  In- 
dian— no,  not  fighter — lover  was  buried  from  the 
fort,  in  the  Fort  cemetery  at  the  foot  of  Madi- 
son street.  No  doubt  those  who  loved  him 
thought  he  could  rest  in  peace  near  his  old  home. 
Three  times  within  the  next  fifty  years  his  bones 
were  removed — to  the  site  of  the  waterworks, 
to  the  tract  now  covered  by  Lincoln  park,  and 
then  to  Graceland,  where  the  metropolis  has 
again  overtaken  them.  When  the  village  of 
Chicago  was  platted  by  the  canal  commissioners, 
in  1830,  Robert  Kinzie,  for  the  Kinzie  family, 
entered  a  claim  for  a  homestead  which  had  been 
occupied  since  1804.  This  tract,  afterward  known 
as  Kinzie 's  Addition  to  Chicago,  extended  from 
the  river  to  Chicago  avenue,  and  from  North 
State  street  to  the  Lake.  It  contained  102  acres, 
and  as  each  man  who  made  an  entry  on  govern- 
ment land  was  entitled  to  160  acres,  Mrs.  Kinzie 
urged  her  sons  to  pre-empt  the  other  fifty-eight 
acres  on  Wolf  Point.  They  were  much  amused 
by  her  insistence  that  Wolf  Point,  between  the 
forks  and  looking  up  the  main  stream  would  one 
day  be  worth  a  king's  ransom.  Before  five  years 
had  passed  the  Kinzie  boys  wished  they  had 
taken  their  mother's  advice. 

On  the  map,  platted  at  the  time,  Chicago  looks 
like  a  town.  The  nice  straight  lines,  marking 
streets,  existed  only  on  the  map,  however. 
Stakes  were  driven  in  at  the  corners  of  sur- 
veyed blocks  to  indicate  where  future  streets 
were  to  be  run,  but  the  highways  as  yet  were 
mere  footpaths  and  wagon  tracks  that  meandered 
from  house  to  house.  The  only  roads  out  of  the 
town,  across  the  sloughs  and  sand  ridges,  were 
the  old  Indian  trails.  There  was  not  one  well- 
defined  street  or  bit  of  paving.  Every  man  had 
built  his  cabin  wherever  he  pleased,  on  the  driest 
spot  he  could  find  along  the  river  front. 

Beginning  further  south,  the  American  Fur 
Company  had  a  warehouse  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  and  the  agent,  whoever  he  might  be,  lived 
in  a  cabin  near  by.  Jean  Baptiste  Beaubien  had 
a  store  at  the  foot  of  Randolph  street  on  Fort 
Dearborn  Reservation.  West  of  the  fort  grounds 
a  slough  entered  the  river  at  what  is  now  State 
street.  Across  this  a  log  foot-bridge  had  been 
thrown.  At  the  west  end  of  the  bridge,  on  what 


would  now  be  Dearborn  and  South  Water  streets, 
was  a  store  owned  by  Medore  Beaubien. 

A  public  square  had  been  staked  out  bj  tie 
canal  commissioners  in  the  meadow  where  our 
court  house  and  city  hall  now  stand.  On  it,  at 
that  time,  the  horses  of  transient  guests  at  the 
taverns  were  turned  out  to  graze,  and  later  an 
"estray  pen,"  the  first  public  building  in  Chi- 
cago, was  built,  to  be  followed  by  a  log  jail. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  south  branch,  corner 
of  Lake  and  Market  streets,  Mark  Beaubien 
built  a  tavern.  This  was  easily  the  most  con- 
spicuous house  in  the  settlement,  for  it  was  two 
stories  high,  clapboarded  over  the  logs,  painted 
white,  and  adorned  with  bright  blue  shutters. 
Beaubien  called  it  the  Sauganash  House,  after 
the  half-breed  Indian  chief,  Billy  Caldwell. 

The  Sauganash  and  Its  Landlord. — An  English 
traveler  a  few  years  later  described  Mark  Beau- 
bien as  a  "sporty  Frenchman  with  a  squaw  and 
a  score  of  papooses."  It  is  true  that  he  had 
married  an  Indian  woman  and  that,  he  was  the 
father  of  twenty-three  children,  many  of  whom 
went  west  of  the  Mississippi  with  the  Potta- 
watomies;  but  nearly  all  Frenchmen  in  the  West 
marri«d  Indian  women,  and  early  Chicagoans 


THE  SAUGANASH  HOUSE. 

would  have  resented  such  a  description  of  the 
genial  landlord  of  The  Sauganash,  who  kept 
tavern,  traded  with  the  red  man,  ran  the  first 
ferry  across  the  river,  and  still  had  time  for  his 
serious  occupations  of  horse  racing,  fiddling,  and 
general  entertaining  for  the  community.  The 
Sauganash  House  was  always  open  for  a  dance 
and  "Monsieur  Mark,"  in  a  swallow-tail  blue 
coat  with  brass  buttons,  and  tight  nankeen 
trousers,  played  Money  Musk  and  Fisher's  Horn- 
pipe as  long  as  there  was  a  youthful  pair  of 
heels  to  keep  time. 

Elijah  Wentworth  had  a  public  house  on 
Wolf  Point,  and  a  man  named  Miller  kept  a 
tavern  and  Clybourn's  butcher  shop  in  the  north 
triangle  made  by  the  forking  of  the  river.  Th? 
stream  and  its  branches  were  the  only  highway? 
to  both  Indian  and  white  man,  and  any  way 
farer  needing  food  and  shelter  was  sure  to  hav* 
to  pass  the  junction  of  the  waterways.  In  th^ 
course  of  a  year  there  would  be  a  good  many 
guests  to  patronize  the  public  houses  about 
Wolf  Point,  which  was  then,  indeed,  the  nucleus 
of  the  future  city. 


46 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT,  continued. 


Alexander  Eobinson,  a  half  breed  Indian  chief, 
had  a  trading  house  on  the  site  of  the  present 
Haymarket,  and  a  half-breed  chief  named  La 
Framboise,  a  cabin  where  the  Burlington  depot 
now  stands.  On  the  north  side  of  the  river  were 
the  Kinzie  house,  the  Indian  agency,  McKee's 
blacksmith  shop  and  the  old  Burns  cabin,  that 
was  seldom  occupied.  Up  near  Chicago  and 
Dearborn  avenues,  on  the  Kinzie  tract,  lived 
the  half-breed  Pottawatomie  chief,  Billy  Cald- 
well,  "The  Sauganash,"  in  a  good  frame 
house.  The  Clybourne  cabins  and  slaughter- 
house were  two  and  a  half  miles  out  on  the 
North  Branch. 

In  1831  a  postoffice  was  established  by  a  Mr. 
Bailey  in  the  old  Kinzie  mansion.  Mail  was 
received  every  two  weeks  by  star  route  from 
Fort  Wayne,  the  mail-carrier  having  to  camp 
out  and  to  sustain  himself  with  his  gun  on  the 
way.  The  next  year  the  postoffice  was  moved  to 
a  new  cabin  on  Market  and  Water  Streets,  op- 
posite The  Sauganash  House,  where  a  newcomer, 
John  S.  C.  Hogan,  opened  a  store. 

The  mail  was  laid  in  a  corner  of  a  shelf  with 
the  bolts  of  calico,  and  customers  picked  out 
their  own  letters.  Archibald  Clybourne  asked 
Mr.  Hogan  why  he  didn't  put  on  some  style 
and  get  a  set  of  pigeon-holes,  such  as  were  used 
in  the  East.  There  was  not  a  cabinet-maker  in 
the  country,  but  the  postmaster  called  for  old 
boot-tops,  lashed  them  together,  and  nailed  them 
by  the  straps  to  the  log  side  of  the  cabin,  let- 
tered them  and  had  a  set  of  pigeon-holes  that 
was  the  admiration  of  Chicago. 

There  was  no  garrison  in  the  fort  in  the  win- 
ter of  '31- '32,  and  this  was  fortunate,  for  400 
emigrants,  who  reached  Chicago  in  the  autumn, 
spent  the  winter  inside  the  stockade  because  of 
the  rumor  of  trouble  with  the  Sacs  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi. The  winter  was  a  busy  and  prosperous 
one  for  the  little  settlement.  The  existing 
stores  could  not  supply  all  these  wayfarers,  so 
Eobert  Kinzie,  then  21,  and  George  W.  Dole 
opened  two  more.  Archibald  Clybourne  began 
to  grow  rich  in  the  butcher  business  and 
planned  to  build  a  large  colonial  mansion  at 
New  Virginia,  as  he  called  Clybourne  Place. 
Cook  county  was  organized  and  Chicago  be- 
came the  county  seat  of  a  territory  that  em- 
braced the  present  counties  of  Cook,  Lake,  Du 
Page  and  Will.  A  ferry  was  established  at 
Wolf  Point  and  two  country  roads  were  laid  out. 
One  of  these  roads  ran  out  Madison  street  and 
Ogden  avenue  to  Barney  Lawton's  house  at 
Eiversicle,  following  the  old  portage  trail,  and 
the  other  went  out  over  Hubbard's  trail,  now 
State  street  and  Archer  avenue.  Chicago  confi- 
dently looked  for  a  boom  in  the  spring  of  1832. 
But,  instead  of  a  boom,  business  was  paralyzed 
and  emigration  brought  to  a  standstill  by  the 
Black  Hawk  war. 

In  all  the  histories  of  Chicago  and  Illinois,  a 
great  deal  of  space  is  given  to  the  terrible 


Black  Hawk  war,  to  the  sufferings  and  losses 
of  innocent  white  settlers  and  to  the  friendship 
"and  good  faith  of  two  Pottawatomie  chiefs — 
"The  Sauganash"  and  Shabona.  But  for  their 
refusals  to  join  the  Sacs,  Chicago  would  have 
added  another  terrible  massacre  to  her  history, 
while  all  these  things  are  true,  there  seems  little 
doubt  that  the  Black  Hawk  war  could  have 
been  avoided. 

Causes  of  the  Black  Hawk  War. — On  the  out- 
break of  the  War  of  1812,  Black  Hawk,  Sha- 
bona, and  other  chiefs  of  the  Northwest,  joined 
Tecumseh  and  the  British.  When  Tecumseh  fell 
in  the  battle  of  the  Thames  in  Canada,  in  1813, 
Black  Hawk  came  home,  intending  to  fight  no 
more,  but  he  found  an  aged  Indian  friend  seri- 
ously injured  by  white  ruffians.  He  then  began 
his  terrible  border  forays.  For  three  years  the 
people  of  the  middle  Mississippi  slept  on  their 
guns  and  shuddered  at  the  name  of  this  chief. 
As  Mr.  Reuben  Gold  Thwaites  says  in  his  mono- 
graph on  the  Black  Hawk  war: 

He  buried  the  hatchet,  but  he  hated  the 
Americans.'  He  was  continuously  disturbed  and 
molested  by  them.  In  1823  some  white  settlers 
caught  him  alone  and  gave  him  a  causeless  and 
cruel  beating.  This  insult  he  treasured  up  against 
the  American  people.  In  the  same  year,  squat- 
ters began  to  take  up  claims  in  the  Sac  country, 
under  an  old  treaty  which  Black  Hawk  dis- 
claimed, by  which  the  Sacs  had  agreed  to  mi- 
grate beyond  the  Mississippi  whenever  their 
land  should  be  needed  for  settlement. 

The  main  body  of  the  Sacs  had,  long  before, 
crossed  the  Mississippi  and  gone  to  the  Des 
Moines  river  under  the  head  chief,  Keokuk. 
Only  this  one  band,  numbering  380  warriors, 
remained  in  Illinois,  in  a  village  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Rock  river,  which  the  Sacs  had  occupied 
undisturbed  for  150  years. 

In  1830  it  could  not  be  claimed  that  this  Sac 
Village  site  was  "needed  for  settlement," 
since  the  nearest  farms  were  fifty  miles  away. 
Yet,  in  the  spring  of  1831,  Black  Hawk,  now 
67  years  of  age,  returned  from  the  winter  hunt 
to  find  white  men  living  in  his  village.  A  trader 
from  Fort  Armstrong,  on  Rock  Island,  had  en- 
tered a  claim  on  it  with  the  government  and, 
with  hirelings  from  the  fort  and  the  lead  mines, 
was  cultivating  the  700  acres  of  fertile  bottom 
land,  made  mellow  by  150  years  of  growing 
Indian  crops. 

There  was  a  skirmish,  and  the  Sacs  recovered 
a  part  of  their  fields  and  planted  their  corn. 
The  white  claimants  did  not  observe  an  honor- 
able truce,  however,  but  in  the  course  of  a  sum- 
mer spread  such  alarming  reports  of  an  alleged 
intended  rising  of  the  Sacs,  that  settlers  in  (he 
Illinois  valley  appealed  for  help.  They  cannot 
be  blamed,  for,  in  his  prime,  Black  Hawk  had 
been  a  warrior  of  many  bloody  deeds,  and  his 
name  still  inspired  terror. 

Governor   Reynolds,    not   knowing    the    source 


47 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


of  this  alarm,  called  for  600  volunteers,  and 
General  Gaines  was  ordered  from  Washington 
to  reenforce  the  garrison  at  Fort  Armstrong,  on 
Rock  Island.  There  it  must  surely  have  been 
known  that  the  Sacs  were  the  victims  of  reck- 
less-and  greedy  adventurers.  But  as  no  pretext 
was  ever  lost  by  which  the  Indians  might  be 
moved  westward,  so  now  the  Sacs  were  ordered 
to  leave  their  ancient  village  and  cross  the 
Mississippi.  Faced  by  soldiers,  they  sullenly 
submitted,  and  signed  a  forced  treaty  to  remain 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  river.  From  the  bluffs 
of  Davenport  they  could  see  the  green  banners 
of  the  maize  waving  and  flashing  in  the  fields 
the  squaws  had  planted,  and  which  their  de- 
spoilers  were  to  reap  in  triumph. 

That  winter  they  had  no  corn.  They  were  in 
debt  to  traders  on  Rock  Island  and  had  no 
credit.  Always  poor,  as  Indians  are  in  winter, 
famine,  sickness  and  death  were  companions  of 
this  wretched  band  of  exiles.  With  bitterness 
in  his  heart,  Black  Hawk  recrossed  the  river 
and  begged  the  Winnebagoes  of  Wisconsin  and 
the  Pottawatomies  of  Illinois  to  help  him  re- 
cover his  village.  They  refused — the  Winne- 
bagoes, because  they  had  been  defeated  in  an 
uprising  and  severely  punished,  only  five  years 
before,  and  the  Pottawatomies  because  they  had 
wives  and  humane  chiefs,  who  knew  that  for  the 
Indian  to  go  on  the  warpath  simply  invited  ex- 
termination. The  chiefs  "Sauganash"  and 
"Shabona"  were  putting  off  the  evil  day  of 
exile  for  the  Pottawatomies  as  long  as  possible. 

In  pity,  Chief  White  Cloud  of  the  Winne- 
bagoes, offered  the  dispossessed  tribe  of  Sacs  corn- 
fields along  the  Wisconsin  river.  In  April,  the 
moon  of  corn-planting  of  1832,  Black  Hawk 
broke  the  treaty  so  far  as  to  recross  the  Mis- 
sissippi. There  were  380  braves,  and  twice  as 
many  squaws  and  children  and  old  men,  with 
the  skins  and  camping  outfits.  This  alone  indi- 
cated a  peaceful  expedition,  for  when  on  the 
warpath  these  Indians  never  hampered  their 
movements  by  taking  the  non-combatants  along. 
As  if  anxious  to  avoid  trouble,  or  the  appear- 
ance of  hostility,  the  band  did  not  stop  at  their 
old  home.  The  braves  rode  on  ponies  along  the 
bank  of  Rock  river  while  the  squaws  and  chil- 
dren embarked  in  canoes  and  rode  to  Dixon's 
Ferry. 

The  country  along  the  Illinois,  clear  to  Chi- 
cago, was  in  a  panic  of  fright,  and  Governor 
Reynolds  called  out  1,800  militia.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, then  twenty-three  years  old,  and  "out  of 
work,"  enlisted  from  Sangamon  county,  and 
was  elected  captain  by  the  Clary's  Grove  boys, 
' ' serving, "  as  he  said,  "as  a  high  private, ' ' 
for  his  privates  all  felt  themselves  capable  of 
commanding  themselves,  and  did  so  in  this  back- 
woods Indian  chase. 

The  militia  reached  Dixon's  Ferry  by  May  9, 
and  there  it  was  reported  that  the  Sacs  had 
dispersed  among  the  Winebagoes  and  did  not 


intend  to  fight.  Major  Stillman,  however,  had 
come  to  fight,  and  he  marched  thirty-five  miles 
farther  east  to  Sycamore  Creek.  While  in  camp 
there,  a  party  of  Indians  came  under  a  flag  of 
truce  from  Black  Hawk's  camp,  where  the  chief 
was  giving  a  dog  feast  to  seal  his  friendship 
with  the  Winnebagoes. 

Black  Hawk  Provoked  to  War. — This  flag  of 
truce  was  violated.  Some  of  the  Indians  were 
killed.  Those  who  escaped  fled  to  Black  Hawk 
with  the  story  of  the  outrage.  Only  half  of 
Black  Hawk 's  braves  were  with  him,  but  the 
war-whoop  was  sounded  and  there  was  a  bloody 
battle  at  Stillman 's  Run,  That  night  a  council 
of  war  was  held,  and  Black  Hawk  made  a  speech 
that  was  an  impassioned  example  of  Indian 
oratory.  He  begged  the  Winnebagoes  and  Pot- 
tawatomies to  help  him  avenge  his  wrongs.  ' '  If 
we  bring  all  our  warriors  together  they  will  be 
in  number  like  the  trees  of  the  forest,  and  will 
sweep  the  pale  faces  into  Lake  Michigan." 

"And  the  white  men  can  muster  troops  in 
number  like  the  leaves  on  the  trees  of  the  for- 
est and  they  will  sweep  us  all  to  the  western 
ocean,"  said  Shabona  of  the  Pottawatomies, 
who  rode  away  to  Chicago  to  organize  his  tribe 
for  scout  and  spy  service  to  protect  white  settle- 
ments. 

Deserted  by  their  allies,  Black  Hawk's  braves 
seemed  to  have  determined  to  sell  their  lives 
as  dearly  as  possible  and  to  make  the  whites  pay 
a  high  price  for  their  final  victory.  The  Sacs 
left  their  women  and  children  among  the  Winne- 
bagoes and  broke  up  into  small  parties  to  mas- 
sacre, burn  and  ravage  the  white  settlements. 

The  settlers  west  of  Chicago  made  a  stam- 
pede for  Fort  Dearborn.  Five  hundred  refugees 
found  shelter  within  the  stockade.  The  Cook 
County  militia  was  organized  under  General  J. 
B.  Beaubien.  Indian  scouts  under  "The  Sauga- 
nash"  and  Shabona  brought  in  scattered  set- 
tlers and  livestock,  and  made  it  their  business 
to  protect  buildings  and  growing  crops.  So  well 
did  they  do  this  that  except  at  one  or  two  places 
there  was  very  little  loss  of  life  or  property 
after  news  came  in  of  a  horrid  massacre  of  the 
white  settlers  on  Indian  Creek,  near  the  present 
town  of  Ottawa.  The  Chicago  militia  marched 
to  this  point,  buried  the  dead  and  marched  back 
again,  while  the  state  militia  took  up  a  running 
pursuit  of  the  flying  Indians.  There  was  not 
one  pitched  battle.  As  Lincoln  often  said  "we 
rarely  caught  up  with  an  Indian  but  we  fought 
mosquitoes  through  a  six  weeks'  march." 

In  July  General  Scott  arrived  in  Fort  Dear- 
born over  the  lakes  with  government  troops, 
and  with  Asiatic  cholera  aboard.  From  the 
cholera  the  refugees  fled  with  greater  terror 
than  from  the  Indians,  who  were  now,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  retreating  westward  across  Wis- 
consin. The  pest-stricken  town  of  Chicago  was 
abandoned.  After  burying  100  victims  of  the 
cholera,  General  Scott  camped  on  the  banks  of 


48 


THE    STOitr    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


the  Desplaines  under  the  rustling  maples  of 
Riverside.  Thence  he  marched  through  Naper- 
ville  and  the  sites  of  Elgin,  Belvidere  and  Be- 
loit.  There  news  came  to  him  that  Black  Hawk 
had  been  routed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bad  Axe 
river  in  western  Wisconsin. 

The  Black  Hawk  War  was  over;  380  half- 
starved,  homesick  Indians  had  been  reduced  to 
a  helpless  remnant  by  six  or  eight  times  their 
number  of  white  men.  Black  Hawk,  "  ihe  last 
native  defender"  of  the  soil  of  the  old  North- 
west Territory,  had  been  vanquished.  This  is  a 
page  in  our  history  of  which  we  are  not  proud, 
but  it  is  a  story  that  is  typical  of  our  treat- 
ment of  the  red  man  in  the  first  century  of 
national  freedom. 

General  Scott  marched  along  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Bock  river  to  Kock  Island.  Farm- 
ers glean  wealth  there  today;  prosperous  cities 
have  arisen;  artists  go  hundreds  of  miles  to 
sketch  its  wooded  bluffs,  rolling  pastures  and 
reaches  of  bright  water.  Then  it  was  vacant; 
the  Indian  was  gone.  Deer  and  gray  wolves, 


song  birds  and  Indian  graves  tenanted  the  great 
watered  plateau  of  northern  Illinois.  The  Rock 
river  valley  was  opened  to  settlement. 

Beginnings  of  Chicago's  First  Boom. — Again 
soldiers  spread  tidings  of  a  new,  rich  country. 
A  furore  of  immigration  set  in  through  Chicago. 
Many  who  had  intended  to  go  on  stopped  in  the 
village  that  now  began  to  give  promise  of  its 
future  importance.  Emigrants  arrived  on  foot, 
on  horseback,  in  caravans,  by  sailboat.  In  the 
summer  of  1833,  150  new  houses  were  built  along 
both  sides  of  the  river.  Rough  green  lumber 
from  the  poor  native  timber  was  used  and  sawed 
in  a  water  mill  six  miles  out  on  the  north 
branch.  Newberry  and  Dole  built  a  frame  ware- 
house on  Dearborn  and  South  Water  streets  and 
shipped  287  barrels  of  beef,  besides  tallow  and 
hides,  to  Detroit;  and  David  Carver  brought  a 
Bchoonerload  of  pine  lumber  from  St.  Joseph, 
Mich.,  and  opened  a  lumber  yard  on  the  river 
bank  between  what  is  now  La  Salle  street  and 
Fifth  avenue.  Thus  were  two  of  Chicago's 
greatest  industries  begun. 

The  close  of  the  year  1833  found  Chicago 
a  legally  incorporated  town  with  the  required 


population  of  150.  An  election  was  held  in 
August,  when  twenty-eight  voters  were  regis- 
tered. A  transformation  was  to  be  wrought 
within  five  years,  but  at  that  time  Chicago 
was  a  rather  squalid  town  of  rough  shanties  and 
cabins,  squatting  disconsolately  and  without 
order,  in  the  mud.  Even  in  the  fort  there  was 
no  building  over  twenty  feet  in  height.  The 
flagstaff  was  fifty  feet  high,  and  on  holidays 
the  weather-beaten  emblem  of  liberty  and  union 
did  its  best  to  lend  a  festive  air  to  the  untamed 
landscape. 

But  there  was  an  unmistakable  air  of  busi- 
ness about  the  place.  There  were  as  many  emi- 
grants— birds  of  passage — as  there  were  inhabi- 
tants. A  score  of  families  might  be  seen  any 
day  camping  about  their  prairie  schooners  on 
the  public  square  and  cooking  their  meals  over 
gipsy  campfires.  Houses  were  put  up  on  a 
week's  notice;  the  taverns  about  Wolf  Point 
were  crowded,  and  muslin  partitions,  run  on 
'cords,  multiplied  the  bedrooms.  And  the  gov- 
ernment engineers,  with  an  encampment  of  la- 
borers on  the  Kinzie  tract,  were  working  on  the 
harbor  improvements. 

Congress  had  appropriated  $25,000  for  this 
purpose,  more  money  than  all  Chicago  would 
have  sold  for,  but  no  one  scoffed,  for  the  very 
atmosphere  of  the  place  was  sanguine.  Chicago 
seemed  to  hold  its  breath  with  expectancy  while 
the  straight  cut  was  being  made  across  the  sand 
bar,  the  old  outlet  of  the  river  closed,  and  the 
piers  steadily  pushed  a  thousand  feet  out  into 
the  lake.  Then  the  river  froze  over  during  a 
winter  of  content  and  hope.  In  the  spring  of 
1834  the  ice  in  the  Desplaines  broke  up  with  a 
boom,  such  as  had  forced  Father  Marquette 
to  take  to  his  canoe  160  years  before;  the  flood 
rolled  over  the  divide,  submerged  the  Chicago 
flats,  and  rushed  like  a  mill  race  through  the 
new  channel  to  the  lake. 

It  was  a  gala  day  to  Chicago's  400  people 
when  the  first  vessel  of  large  tonnage — the  Illi- 
nois— sailed  into  the  river.  The  town  was 
made;  the  boom  had  come;  real  estate  values 
soared,  although  the  real  estate  itself  lay  under 
a  foot  or  so  of  water.  There  was  no  talk  among 
business  men  and  the  speculators  who  swarmed 
into  Chicago  but  of  the  projected  Illinois  and 
Michigan  canal,  and  of  the  fleets  that  were  to 
sail  from  New  York,  through  Chicago  to  the 
Mississippi  and  the  gulf. 


49 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE  TOWN  OF  CHICAGO. 

(1833-1837.) 

The  Passing  of  the  Bed  Man. — When  the  first 
election  of  a  board  of  five  trustees  for  the  town 
of   Chicago   was    held    on   the   10th    of    August, 
1833,     in      the     Sauganash 
House,  the  allied  tribes  of 
Pottawatomies,        Ottawas, 
and  Ojibwas  still  held  title 
to      the     lands     bordering 
Lake    Michigan,    with    the 
exception  of  certain  tracts 
ceded    to    the    government. 
The    old    Northwest    Terri- 
tory had  been  cut  up  into 
states;      state     roads     had 
ALEX    BEAUBIEN.    been    laid    out    and    canals 

As  a   boy   he   saw   the  built      or     proiected.      The 
last  war  dance.  ,         *_  •      iv       A  j.i      j.- 

country   from   the   Atlantic 

seaboard  to  the  Mississippi  burned  with  zeal  to 
conquer  nature,  and  the  people  were  nothing 
daunted  by  time,  distance,  expense,  or  wide  soli- 
tude. Only  the  fear  of  the  Indian  held  ambition 
in  check.  Black  Hawk  had  been  defeated,  and 
the  valley  of  the  Eock  river  was  ready  for  the 
plow  of  the  pioneer,  but  between  that  fertile 
land  and  the  East  lay  a  broad  region  of  Indian 
country  which  might  at  any  moment  become 
hostile.  Chicago  was  girt  on  all  sides.  In 
western  Michigan  and  northwestern  Indiana  lay 
a  wilderness  almost  as  unbroken  as  that  of 
Wisconsin  and  Iowa.  The  site  of  Michigan  City 
had  but  one  house  on  its  desolate  sand  dunes, 
and  between  that  and  Chicago  were  but  few 
other  habitations  of  white  men. 

The  defeated  Black  Hawk  brought  about  an 
immediate  transformation  in  Chicago.  The  In- 
dians as  well  as  white  settlers  realized  that  the 
time  had  come  for  the  red  men  to  depart  from 
the  region  and  go  into  exile  west  of  the  Miss- 
issippi. That  they  did  go  without  resistance 
and  made  such  good  terms  for  themselves  is  due 
to  the  wise  and  temperate  counsels  of  their 
chiefs,  who  saw  that  resistance  simply  invited 
extermination.  There  were  a  half-dozen  of 
these  chiefs  with  the  Indians  about  Chicago 
who  deserve  special  mention.  Shabona  was  a 
full-blooded  Ottawa,  a  grand-nephew  of  the  fa- 
mous Pontiac,  with  much  of  his  great  ancestor's 
sagacity.  "He  was  the  one  Indian  I  ever  knew 


who  was  good  when  he  was  alive,"  the  late 
Colonel  Hitt,  of  Ottawa,  owner  of  "Starved 
Kock, "  once  said  to  the  writer. 

But  he  was  not  the  only  good  Indian,  as  many 
of  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago  were  ready  to 
testify.  The  Sauganash  (Billy  Caldwell),  Alex- 
ander Eobinson,  and  La  Framboise — half  breeds 
— had  all  won  affection  and  respect  by  their 
virtues.  Many  pathetic  efforts  were  made  by 
these  enlightened  chiefs  to  win  their  tribes  to 
the  ways  of  white  men. 

Last  Council  of  the  Indians  of  Chicago. — In 
September,  1833,  the  government  commissioners 
arrived  and  called  the  Indians  to  a  treaty  coun- 
cil. Plank  huts  were  erected  along  the  north 
bank  of  the  river  for  their  accommodation,  for 
the  fort  was  full  of  soldiers  who  might  be 
needed  should  the  r.ed  men  give  trouble.  Five 
thousand  Indian?  of  the  allied  tribes  were 
camped  all  over  the  prairie  to  the  north.  A 
council  house  had  been  built  of  poles  and  bark 
on  the  Kinzie  tract,  where  the  Kinzie  mansion 
stood  abandoned  to  decay.  It  was  not  occupied 
after  1832,  and  soon  disappeared. 

Chicago  was  a  picturesque  place  in  Septem- 
ber, 1833.  Within  the  next  four  years  it  was 
to. change  from  month  to  month  by  a  series  of 
startling  transformations.  Never  again  was  it 
to  look  as  it  did  then.  The  lake  tumbled  its 
waves  over  the  new  piers  and  piled  up  sand 
along  the  north  shore,  rapidly  changing  the 
shore  line.  The  autumn  rains  had  not  begun, 
and  golden  rod,  asters,  and  Indian  lilies  bloomed 
in  the  rank  prairie  grass.  The  river  was  as 
limpid  as  the  lake,  for  not  enough  slaughtering 
and  tanning  had  been  done  as  yet  to  pollute  its 
waters. 

There  were  but  one  hundred  and  fifty  people 
resident  in  the  town,  but  there  were  four 
hotels  about  Wolf  Point,  all  full  of  transient 
guests,  drawn  here  by  the  treaty.  Hundreds  of 
emigrants  were  living  in  prairie  schooners  wait- 
ing for  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  before  seek- 
ing homesteads  in  the  Indian  lands.  Horse 
dealers  and  stealers,  peddlers,  sharpers,  whisky 
sellers,  contractors  for  feeding  the  Indians,  spec- 
ulators, and  adventurers — enough  rogues  to  keep 
the  new  log  jail  on  the  public  square  filled — 
were  in  town.  Every  man  had  a  claim,  genuine 
or  spurious,  against  the  Indians,  and  schemed  to 


50 


get  some  of  the  cash  which  the  government  was 
sure  to  distribute  with  a  liberal  hand. 

The  village  was  a  chaos  of  mud,  rubbish,  and 
confusion.  The  Indians  kept  up  the  wildest  up- 
roar day  and  night,  singing,  howling,  weeping, 
yelling.  The  braves  got  drunk  and  stayed  drunk, 
and  in  that  condition,  gaudily  dressed  and 
painted,  rode  races,  fought  mock  battles,  and 
went  on  the  chase.  Squaws,  papooses,  dogs, 
ponies,  and  medicine  men,  as  well  as  braves, 
lived  merely  on  the  government.  Ignorant,  de- 
graded by  the  white  man's  fire-water,  desolate, 
helpless,  speedily  to  disappear  from  the  earth, 
these  aboriginals  were  no  match  for  agents, 
traders,  and  creditors.  In  spite  of  most  liberal 
grants  they  were  to  go  out  of  the  country 
plucked. 

Day  after  day  passed  in  carousal.  The  signal 
gun  from  the  fort  called  the  chiefs  daily  to  the 
council,  but  it  was  the  21st  before  the  council 
fire  was  lit  in  the  long  bark  house.  In  four 
days  the  deed  was  done,  and  all  Indian  titles 
to  lands  east  of  the  Mississippi  were  wiped  out. 
Five  million  acres  of  land  in  northern  Missouri 
were  granted  these  tribes,  their  debts  were  paid, 
buildings  and  tools  were  to  be  provided,  and  an 
annuity  given  them  for  twenty  years.  The 
principal  chiefs  were  pensioned. 

Last  War  Dance  in  Chicago. — It  was  two 
years,  however,  before  the  Indians  departed 
from  Chicago  for  their  new  home.  In  the  mean- 
time the  town  had  increased  to  a  population  of 
over  3,000,  who,  from  the  fort,  the  storey, 
hotels,  dwellings,  the  wharves  along  South 
Water  street,  and  the  new  drawbridge  at  Dear- 
born street,  witnessed  the  farewell  war  dance 
of  the  braves.  The  scene  was  thus  described 
half  a  century  later  by  John  Dean  Caton,  a 
young  lawyer  who,  in  1835,  had  an  office  ' '  on 
the  head  of  a  barrel,"  as  he  said,  at  Fifth  ave- 
nue and  Lake  street,  and  wondered  how  he  was 
going  to  meet  his  weekly  board  bill  at  the 
Sauganash  House: 

"It  was  in  August,  1835,  that  the  Potta- 
watomies  danced  their  last  war  dance  in  Chi- 
cago. Certain  risks  were  taken  in  permitting 
them  to  dance,  but  the  officer  in  command  at  the 
fort  feared  also  to  refuse  them.  The  garrison 
was  under  arms  on  the  parade  ground  at  Mich- 
igan avenue  and  the  river,  ostensibly  to  do  the 
braves  honor,  but  in  reality  to  be  in  readiness 
for  trouble  should  sorrow,  excitement,  and  bad 
whisky  prove  too  much  for  the  Indians'  self- 
control. 

"The  braves  assembled  at  the  bark  council 
house  after  hours  in  their  tepees  spent  in  mak- 
ing their  savage  toilet.  All  were  naked  except 
for  a  strip  of  cloth  about  the  loins,  but  their 
bodies  were  covered  with  elaborate  designs,  in 
brilliant  paints,  foreheads,  cheeks,  and  noses 
were  lined  with  curved  stripes  of  vermilion 
edged  with  black  points,  that  gave  a  diabolical 
expression  to  their  faces.  The  long,  coarse, 


black  hair  was  gathered  into  scalp-locks  and 
decorated  with  colored  hawk  and  eagle  feathers 
extending  down  the  back  to  the  ground.  The 
braves  were  armed  with  war  clubs  and  toma- 
hawks and  were  led  by  musicians  who  kept  up 
a  hideous,  rhythmic  din  by  beating  on  hollow 
vessels  with  sticks. 

"They  advanced,  not  by  marching,  but  by  a 
continuous  dance.  Proceeding  westward  along 
the  north  bank  of  the  river,  they  crossed  the 
eighty-foot  slough  at  Market  street  and  the 
north  branch  on  swaying  foot  bridges,  thence 
along  the  west  bank  to  Lake  street,  where  a 
log  bridge  spanned  the  south  branch.  They 
were  now  just  below  the  windows  of  the  Sauga- 
nash House,  which  stood  on  the  southeast  corner 
of  Lake  and  Market,  where  the  Republican  Wig- 
wam was  afterward  built  and  where  Lincoln 
was  nominated  for  the  presidency  twenty-five 
years  later. 

"The    dance,   which   never   stopped,    consisted 


SHABONA. 

of  jerks,  leaps,  and  unnatural  distortions,  all 
performed  with  lightning-like  swiftness  and 
wildcat  grace  and  ferocity.  There  were  eight 
hundred  braves  in  that  raging  river  of  dusky, 
painted  fiends  which  poured  over  the  bridge 
and  flowed  down  Lake  street  to  the  fort.  They 
were  frothing  at  the  mouth;  many  had  been 
wounded  by  flying  tomahawks  and  war  clubs, 
and  blood  mingled  with  dust,  paint,  and  sweat, 
but  the  victims  were  unconscious  of  their  hurts. 
Ladies  at  the  windows  fainted  as  the  savages 
closed  around  the  hotel  to  perform  extra  ex- 
ploits. What  if  this  sham  rage  should  turn  into 
a  real  attack!  How  easy  it  would  have  been 


51 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


for   these   Indians   to   have   committed   another 
massacre  in  a  helpless  town! 

"But  the  braves  worked  off  their  emotions 
in  the  dance,  and  after  an  exhibition  that  was 
a  horrid  climax,  before  the  garrison  on  the 
parade  ground,  they  crossed  Dearborn  street 
bridge  and,  for  the  last  time,  lit  their  council 
fire  in  Chicago.  The  next  day,  sad  and  sober, 
they  began  their  march  to  Missouri.  Many  half 
breeds  went  with  them,  including  Medore  Beau- 
bien,  who  had  been  a  beau  among  white  belles, 
a  successful  business  man,  and  a  member  of  the 
first  board  of  town  trustees.  The  blood  of  his 
Indian  mother  called  him  to  the  wilds,  and  he 
departed  with  the  tribe  to  become  an  Indian 
chief." 


Suggestions. — The  early  life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln will  give  the  best  account  obtainable  of  the 
peopling  of  southern  Illinois,  and  of  what  sol- 
diering meant  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  Schools 
in  towns  along  tne  Illinois  and  Eock  river  val- 
leys and  northward  into  Wisconsin  will  find 
in  their  local  histories  many  interesting  stories 
of  the  famous  Sac  chief,  Black  Hawk.  Eock 
Island,  111.,  is  now  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Sac 
village.  Chief  Shabona  was  well  known  as 
far  west  as  La  Salle  county.  The  early  chap- 
ters of  Mrs.  Kinzie's  "Waubun"  describe  a 
horseback  journey  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie 
from  Fort  Winnebago,  Wis.  (now  Portage  City) 
to  Chicago,  in  1831,  the  spring  before  the  Black 
I'awk  war.  They  went  past  the  Four  Lakes 
(n3w  Madison)  into  the  edge  of  the  mining 
country,  and  eastward  along  the  Eock  river  val- 
ley. This  was  all  Indian  country,  and  but  few 
white  families  were  found  in  a  nine  days' 
journey.  "Madame  John"  was  the  heroine  of 
Chicago  for  the  dangers  and  fatigues  she  had 
gone  through-  A  very  full  life  of  Marquis  de 
La  Fayette  will  give  an  account  of  his  visit  to 
General  Jackson  at  Nashville,  St.  Louis  and 
Kaskaskia,  in  1825,  thus  contrasting  the  wealth 
and  social  conditions  of  these  old  French  towns 
on  the  Mississippi  with  the  Chicago  of  that  day. 
In  Kaskaskia  he  was  wined  and  dined  and  feted 
in  the  great  tavern,  and  a  splendid  ball  and  re- 
ception were  given  in  his  honor.  This  was  only 
two  years  after  Dr.  "Walcott  and  Ellen  Marion 
Kinzie  had  had  to  send  160  miles  to  Peoria 
for  a  marriage  license. 


Chicago's  First  Boom  Arrives. — Chicago  had 
not  waited  for  the  Indians  to  leave  before  it 
began  to  grow.  In  the  payment  of  Indian 
debts,  $175,000  was  distributed  among  creditors 
in  the  little  town,  a  half-dozen  members  of  the 
Kinzie  family  alone  receiving  $30,000  as  com- 
pensation for  their  father's  losses  in  the  mas- 
sacre of  1812.  This  average  of  $1,000  per  capita 
gave  capital  for  the  enlargement  and  establish- 
ment of  business,  houses.  Orders  were  sent  to 
Detroit  and  New  York  for  stocks  of  goods  in 


anticipation  of  the  influx  of  settlers  in  the 
spiing.  Wharves  were  built  along  the  south 
bank  of  the  river  from  the  fort  to  the  forks. 
When  the  Illinois  sailed  through  the  new  chan- 
nel in  June,  1834,  it  unloaded  directly  on  the 
wharves  along  the  river,  and  goods  were  carried 
into  the  stores  and  warehouses  on  the  south  side 
of  the  street  that  fronted  the  river,  one  hundred 
feet  back  from  the  bank. 

By  the  middle  of  May  a  cordon  of  prairie 
schooners  was  drawn  around  the  town.  A  sale 
of  school  lands,  in  the  square  mile  bounded  by 
State  and  Halsted,  Iladison  and  Twelfth  streets, 
had  taken  place  in  October  of  the  year  before, 
the  tract  bringing  an  average  of  $6.72  an  acre, 
or  a  total  of  over  $38,000.  Much  of  it  was  sold 
on  time  and  came  back  to  the  school  commis- 
sioners, for  which  the  school  board  of  today  is 
duly  thankful.  The  magnificent  Tribune  build- 
ing, on  Dearborn  and  Madison  streets  is  built  on 
school  land  held  under  long  lease.  It  was  on 
this  school  block  that  land  speculation  in  Chi- 
cago began  as  early  as  the  summer  of  1834, 
for  the  purchasers  of  acre  tracts  subdivided 
their  holdings  into  lots  and  put  them  on  the 


FRINK  &  WALKER'S  STAGECOACH  OFFICE. 

market.  Speculators  came  in  the  van  of  the 
emigrants  and  began  to  invest,  for  the  glorious 
future  of  Chicago  had  been  cried  in  the  streets 
of  New  York. 

In  that  year  Eobert  Kinzie  sold  in  New  York 
a  fourth  of  the  Kinzie  addition  and  all  of  the 
Walcott  addition,  west  of  North  State  street, 
for  $20,000,  and  was  elated  over  his  bargain 
until,  in  the  spring  of  1835,  a  fraction  of  this 
purchase  again  changed  hands  for  $100,000.  On 
behalf  of  the  latest  buyer  William  B.  Ogden 
came  out  to  Chicago  to  put  this  property  on 
the  market. 

He  found  the  ground  low  and  wet,  where  it 
was  not  in  sand  ridges  along  the  shore,  and  cov- 
ered with  scrub  oaks  and  underbrush.  West 
of  State  street  the  tract  was  under  a  foot  of 
water,  and  a  slough  eighty  feet  wide  at  Market 
street,  extended  to  Chicago  avenue.  Mr.  Ogden 
wrote  to  the  owner  that  he  had  been  guilty  of 
the  grossest  folly  in  paying  $100,000  for  that 
swamp.  However,  since  he  was  here,  he  sub- 
divided the  plot  into  blocks  and  lots,  opened 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


streets  and  avenues  and  had  maps  prepared. 
June  suns  dried  up  the  swamps,  and  flowers 
bloomed  on  the  prairie.  Even  the  slough  was 
attractive  by  the  time  emigrants  arrived,  looked 
on  the  busy  town,  believed,  and  bought  lots. 

The  government  opened  a  land  office  on  Dear- 
born street  for  the  sale  of  homesteads  in  the 
ceded  Indian  lands.  Mr.  Ogden  seized  the  mo- 
ment when  the  excitement  was  the  highest,  and 
the  crowd  of  newcomers  was  greatest  and  rich- 
est, to  put  his  lots  up  at  auction.  Over  seventy 
vessels  with  5,000  tonnage  discharged  their  car- 
goes on  the  wharves  of  Chicago  in  that  season. 
The  boom  had  arrived,  and  Mr.  Ogden  sold  one- 
third  of  the  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  acres 
for  the  purchase  price  of  the  whole.  He  was 
dazed.  ' '  The  people  who  bought  those  lots  were 
land-crazy,"  he  declared  when  he  returned  to 
New  Y,ork.  ' '  There  is  no  such  value  in  them, 
and  won't  be  for  a  generation." 

Nevertheless,  Chicago  drew  him,  as  it  drew 
others,  like  a  magnet.  He  came  back  in  1836 
to  see  two  hundred  and  fifty  vessels  crowd  the 
river  with  shipping,  wharves  laden  with  goods, 
ten  hotels  that  had  sprung  up  in  a  night  filled 
with  guests  who  lived  but  to  invest  money,  and 
men  he  had  left  poor  grown  rich.  Fabulous 
stories  were  abroad,  that  might  or  might  not  be 
true;  but  here  was  Chicago,  sitting  in  her  pride 
of  place  on  the  obvious  interoceanic  port  to  the 
West,  and  there  was  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 
canal  to  be  dug  at  last,  for  the  state  had  made 
a  $500,000  loan  to  begin  the  work.  He  who  had 
witnessed  the  transformation  wrought  in  New 
York  by  the  Erie  canal,  changed  his  mind,  and 
definitely  cast  his  fortunes  in  with  Chicago. 

The  craze  for  land  had  reached  fever  heat. 
Every  emigrant  bought  his  homestead,  and  lots 
besides,  in  the  towns  that  were  platted  in  the 
forests,  prairies,  and  sand  dunes  of  Wisconsin, 
Illinois,  and  Michigan.  Chicago  was  the  place 
where  new  towns  were  hatched — on  paper.  In 
Chicago  itself  values  soared.  Everybody  was 
scrambling  for  school  lots,  canal  lots,  water 
lots  with  wharfing  rights,  Kinzie,  Wabansia, 
and  Walcott  addition  lots;  even  for  Fort  Dear- 
born reservation  lots.  This  last  needs  to  be 
explained. 

In  1835  it  was  rumored  that  Fort  Dearborn 
was  to  be  abandoned  as  a  military  reservation. 
General  Jean  Baptiste  Beaubien  had  lived  on 
the  reservation  twenty-two  years,  in  two  houses 
that  he  had  bought  and  paid  for.  Because 
there  was  more  room  than  was  needed  by  the 
soldiers,  he  was  not  disturbed.  The  place  was 
his  homestead.  Since  the  fort  was  to  be  aban- 
doned, he  thought  to  secure  a  title  to  it  by 
filing  a  claim  in  the  land  office.  One  morning 
he  surprised  Chicago  by  walking  out  with  a 
title  to  Fort  Dearborn  reservation,  for  which  he 
had  paid  $1.25  an  acre,  or  a  total  of  $94.61  for 
the  seventy-four  and  a  fraction  acres.  The 
popular  "general"  of  the  Chicago  militia,  as  he 


53 


had  been  since  the  Black  Hawk  war,  was  ap- 
plauded for  his  shrewdness.  Although  there 
were  doubts  as  to  his  claims  being  allowed  in 
Washington,  since  the  fort  was  not  evacuated 
until  December  of  1836,  and  was  not  technically 
opened  to  pre-emption,  still  there  were  plenty  of 
people  ready  to  take  their  chances  on  making 
good  their  titles  when  General  Beaubien  platted 
the  reservation  and  put  the  lots  on  the  market. 

In  illustrating  the  craze  for  land  speculation 
in  Chicago,  the  Treinont  House  lot  at  Dearborn 
and  Lake  streets  has  become  historic,  for  its 
price  rose  so  phenomenally  as  to  make  people 
wonder  if  yeast  had  been  stirred  in  the  soil. 
In  1829  this  lot  was  put  in  a  raffle  at  the 
fort  at  twenty-five  cents  a  chance.  In  1830  the 
owner  swapped  it  for  an  Indian  pony  and 
chuckled  over  his  bargain,  for  in  1831  its  value 
was  rated  under  that  of  a  cord  of  wood  at 
$1.25.  In  1832  it  got  for  its  owner  a  pair  of 
boots  worth  $5,  and  in  1833  was  traded  for  a 
barrel  of  whisky  at  $25.  General  Beaubien  was 
the  purchaser.  In  1834  he  tried  to  get  forty 
cords  of  wood,  worth  $50  for  it,  but  failed,  but 
later  he  parted  with  it  for  a  yoke  of  steers  and 
a  barrel  of  flour.  In  1835  it  was  sold  for  $500 
cash,  and  in  1836  for  $5,000.  It  was  then  taken 
out  of  the  market,  for  Dearborn  and  Lake  had 
become  one  of  the  most  important  corners  in 
Chicago,  the  center  of  the  hotel  and  stagecoach 
district. 

Gurdon  S.  Hubbard,  the  old  Indian  trader, 
bought  two  water-front  lots  between  La  Salle 
street  and  Fifth  avenue  in  1829  for  $66.  In 
1836  he  sold  them  for  $80,000 

Let  us  now  see  what  Chicago  looked  like  in 
the  boom  days  of  1836.  Harriet  Martineau  was 
here  in  the  summer  of  that  year  and  has  given 
a  graphic  picture: 

"I  never  saw  a  busier  place.  It  was  but  a 
squalid  town  of  insignificant  houses  that  sat 
jauntily  in  the  muck  of  the  prairie,  but  the 
streets  were  as  crowded  as  those  of  London. 
Land  sales  were  held  on  every  block,  and  every- 
body hurried  from  one  to  another,  fearing  to 
miss  the  bargains.  A  negro  dressed  in  scarlet, 
bearing  a  red  flag  and  riding  a  white  horse  with 
scarlet  housings,  dashed  through  the  town  and 
announced  the  times  of  sale.  Crowds  flocked 
around  him.  The  gentlemen  of  our  party  were 
hailed  from  the  shop  doors  with  offers  of  farms, 
land  lots,  water  lots,  town  sites,  timber  claims. 
The  immediate  occasion  of  excitement  was  the 
sale  of  $2,000,000  worth  of  lots  along  the  pro- 
jected canal.  Wild  land  along  that  undug  ditch 
was  selling  for  more  than  the  finest  land  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mohawk,  where  an  inestimable 
amount  of  traffic  was  then  being  carried  on. 
These  speculators  in  Chicago  were  not  sharpers 
or  gamblers,  but  hard-headed  business  men.  It 
was  remarkable  to  find  such  an  assemblage  of 
cultivated,  refined,  and  wealthy  people  living  in 
the  rudest  houses  on  the  edge  of  that  wild 
prairie. ' ' 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Chicago  in  1836. — One  who  arrived  in  Chicago 
by  way  of  the  lake,  at  that  time,  would  have 
seen  a  huddle  of  low  houses  on  the  prairie,  over- 
topped by  the  shipping  in  the  river,  for  none  of 
the  six  churches  had  a  steeple,  and  the  ' '  sky- 
scrapers,"  of  which  there  may  have  been  a  half- 
dozen,  were  but  four  stories  high.  The  fort 
stood  on  a  sort  of  knoll  of  sand,  ten  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  lake  and,  with  its  white-washed 
walls  and  neat  garden  and  esplanade,  presented  a 
pleasing  appearance.  The  buildings  within  the 
stockade,  however,  were  not  more  than  twenty 
feet  high,  with  the  exception  of  the  forty-foot 
lighthouse  tower,  which  stood  near  the  end  of 
the'  Eush  street  bridge  of  today.  South  of  the 
stockade,  on  what  is  now  the  corner  of  Mich- 
igan avenue  and  South  Water  street,  stood 
General  Beaubien  's  house  and  garden.  Visitors 
were  sure  to  be  told  of  the  claim  the  General 
had  filed  on  the  reservation,  and  a  standing  joke 
was  to  ask  him  when  he  intended  to  call  out 
the  Chicago  militia  to  turn  the  United  States 
troops  off  his  claim. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  pier, 
on  the  north  bank,  and  just 
east  of  the  site  of  the  old 
Kinzie  house  (the  shore  of  the 
lake  was  at  that  time  about  a 
block  east  of  St.  Clair  street), 
stood  Newberry  &  Dole 's  for- 
warding warehouse.  Large 
covered  wagons,  with  two  span 
of  big  draft  horses  hitched  to 
each,  were  sure  to  be  seen  in 
front  of  this  building  in  the 
early  mornings  when  the  cara- 
van loads  were  being  made  up. 
This  was  Chicago 's  fast 
freight  line  to  Galena,  which 
was  the  great  distributing 
point  for  the  Northwest. 

Where  Kinzie,  Michigan, 
and  Eush  streets  almost  con- 
verge, was  the  new,  four-story, 
$100,000  brick  hotel,  called  the 
Lake  house,  where  they  had  printed  bills  of  fare 
and  a  French  chef.  It  was  here  that  society  con- 
gregated for  the  weekly  dance  in  the  winter. 
"Society"  lived  on  the  North  side,  in  the  Kinzie 
addition.  From  the  river  the  score  or  so  of  big 
frame  houses  of  the  aristocracy  could  be  seen 
plainly,  for  many  of  them  occupied  a  block  of 
ground,  and  the  elms  and  maples  that  were  to 
shade  them  later  were  then  saplings.  St.  James' 
Episcopal  church,  with  its  Gothic  windows  and 
square  tower,  and  William  B.  Ogden's  house, 
with  its  classic  porticos,  were  not  built  until 
1837,  when  Mr.  Van  Osdel,  the  architect,  had 
come  from  New  York. 

The  town  of  Chicago  had  had  no  architect,  as 
was  apparent  from  the  many  buildings  that  were 
out  of  plumb.  The  first  piece  of  work  done  by 
Mr.  Van  Osdel  when  he  arrived  in  1836,  was  to 
raise  the  fronts  of  three  brick  stores  on  Kinzie 


street  that  had  careened  when  the  frost  went 
out  of  the  soil.  Chicago  was  taught  thereby  to 
drive  its  foundation  piles  through  the  muck, 
quicksand,  blue  clay,  and  gravel  pockets  to 
hard-pan. 

The  highest  points  in  the  town  were  at  Mich- 
igan avenue  and  Eush  street,  with  the  drainage 
toward  the  west,  the  elevation  falling  from  ten 
to  only  two  feet  above  lake  level.  Water  would 
have  stood  over  the  whole  surface  the  year  round 
had  it  not  cut  gullies  or  sloughs  to  the  river. 
Three  of  these  entered  the  river  at  State  street, 
near  La  Salle  and  at  North  Franklin. 

South  Water  Street  the  Business  Center.— The 
south  bank  of  the  river  monopolized  the  busi- 
ness of  the  town.  On  this  bank,  beyond  the 
shipping  that  crowded  the  river,  could  be  seen 
the  busy  wharves  and  the  straggling  row  of 
brick,  frame,  and  log  stores  which  stood  a  hun- 
dred feet  back  from  the  stream.  The  boundaries 
of  the  town  were  at  Jackson  on  the  south,  Jeffer- 
son and  Cook  on  the  west,  Ohio  on  the  north, 


THE  DEARBORN  STREET  DRAWBRIDGE  (1835). 


the  Lake  north  of  the  river  and  State  street 
south,  on  the  east;  but  the  main  part  of  the 
town  was  crowded  into  five  blocks  east  and  west, 
between  the  Fort  and  the  Forks,  and  three  north 
and  south. 

Every  store  on  South  Water  street  had  its 
wharf  frontage  on  the  river,  and  the  space  be- 
tween was  a  chaos  of  boxes,  barrels,  and  bales. 
The  plank  sidewalks  went  up  and  down  by  steps, 
scarcely  any  two  neighboring  stores  being  on  a 
level.  No  one  thought  of  complaining  of  that, 
for  any  sidewalk  at  all  was  a  matter  for  thank- 
fulness. The  main  streets  were  graded  but  not 
paved.  An  inclined  plank  road,  forming  a  gutter 
for  drainage  in  the  middle,  had  been  laid  out  in 
Lake  street,  but  the  planks  soon  sank  in  the  mud. 
After  that  historic  failure  at  drainage  Chicago 
began  to  build  up  her  streets  instead  of  digging 
them  out.  At  that  time  the  cross  streets  were 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


drained  by  sluices  running  to  the  river.  There 
was  a  bottomless  inud  hole  at  Clark  and  Ran- 
dolph in  front  of  the  courthouse,  and  a  bog  that 
bred  mosquitoes,  bull  frogs,  and  malaria  at  Clark 
and  Lake,  in  front  of  the  Saloon  building  and 
the  First  Presbyterian  church.  The  people  com- 
plained bitterly  of  the  condition  of  the  streets 
and  bridges.  They  did  not  realize  that  the  level 
of  the  city  would  have  to  be  raised  ten  feet 
before  it  could  get  above  the  mud. 

On  the  southeast  corner  of  Dearborn  and  South 
Water  streets  stood  Newberry  and  Dole's  store. 
It  was  to  remain  a  landmark  for  twenty  years. 
Directly  in  front  of  it  was  the  Dearborn  street 
drawbridge,  a  grewsome  sight  with  its  gallows- 
like  framework  at  either  end  standing  stark 
above  the  river.  The  ' '  draw ' '  was  usually  out 
of  order,  and  the  bridge  was  pulled  down  three 
years  later. 

Just  around  the  corner  on  Dearborn  street  was 
the  land  office,  always  a  lively  place  with  its 
black  jockey  runners,  and  the  strident  voice  of 
the  auctioneer  calling  for  bids.  On  South  Water 
street  were  many  names  on  the  sign  boards  that 
became  noted  in  Chicago  annals;  Kimball,  Dole, 
Carpenter,  Peck,  Brown,  Carver,  Kimberly, 


OLD  STAGECOACH  TAVERN. 

Wentworth,  and  others.  Among  the  notable 
structures  of  the  town  was  the  four-story  State 
bank  building  at  La  Salle  and  South  Water;  the 
Temple  building  at  South  Water  and  Franklin, 
that  was  sacred  to  religion,  education,  and  the 
learned  professions.  John  Dean  Caton,  who  was 
to  be  a  judge  by  and  by,  shared  a  law  office  in 
the  Temple  with  a  seedy  young  physician,  Dr. 
Daniel  Brainard,  who  was  to  help  found  a  groat 
medical  college.  . 

On  Lake  street  were  half  a  dozen  hotels,  among 
them  the  first  Tremont  house,  then  on  the  north- 
west corner  of  Dearborn;  St.  Mary's  Catholic 
church  at  State  street,  Prink  and  Walker 's  stage- 
coach office  and  the  famous  "Saloon  building." 
This  was  riot  a  "saloon"  at  all  but  a  "salon" 
which,  you  know,  is  French  for  "hall,"  and  it 
is  strange  that  the  Beaubiens  and  other  French 
people  in  the  town  should  have  permitted  the 
name  of  the  hall  to  become  corrupted.  It  was 
the  finest  public  hall  west  of  Buffalo. 

In    Stagecoach    Days. — South     Water    street 


curved  with  the  river  at  the  west  end.  Just  on 
the  curve  west  to  Franklin  street  was  the  post- 
office.  When  the  stagecoach  came  in  from  the 
west,  over  the  rattling  log  bridge,  with  a  crack 
of  the  whip  and  a  toot  of  the  horn,  the  mail  was 
thrown  out  and  the  coach  dashed  up  Lake  street. 
The  old  Sauganash  house  was  passed  by,  for  the 
genial  Mark  had  leased  it,  and  built  the  Mansion 
house  at  84  and  86  Lake  street.  Passengers  had 
their  choice  of  nearly  a  dozen  hostelries.  East- 
erners went  to  the  Lake  house,  court  officials  to 
the  City  hotel  on  the  Sherman  house  site,  poli- 
ticians to  taverns  around  the  Saloon  building, 
and  countrymen  with  droves  of  hogs  and  cattle 
or  wagon  loads  of  wheat  put  up  at  the  Green 
Tree  tavern  on  Lake  and  Canal. 

The  postoffice  and  the  courthouse  were  rival 
places  of  entertainment.  When  the  Detroit  stage 
arrived  some  gentleman  with  good  lungs  would 
mount  a  dry-goods  box  in  Hogan  's  store  and  read 
aloud  from  the  New  York  papers  that  were 
only  thirty  days  old.  The  courthouse  had  no 
standing  room  when  a  trial  was  on.  Before  the 
first  circus  came  to  town  in  1836  and  pitched  its 
"monster  tent"  beside  the  New  York  hotel  on 
Lake  Street,  and  the  first  dramatic  company 
played  in  the  Sauganash  house  in  1837,  the  court 
room  was  the  only  theater.  The  judges  and  law- 
yers were  the  stars,  and  the  prisoner  the  villain 
of  the  piece  or  the  persecuted  hero.  Had  the 
eloquence  or  wit  of  lawyers  been  restrained  the 
public  would  have  felt  defrauded.  It  was  under 
such  conditions  as  these  that  Lincoln  had  already 
begun  to  win  fame  as  an  orator  at  Springfield. 

Frink  and  Walker's  stage  office,  on  Lake 
street,  rivaled  the  land  office,  postoffice,  and 
court  room  as  a  place  of  attraction.  Any  one 
who  wanted  to  take  a  journey  made  up  his  mind 
and  secured  his  seat  in  the  stage  a  week  or  a 
month  ahead.  A  time  table  that  hung  on  the 
wall  announced  that  stages  left  for  Detroit  every 
other  day,  time,  three  and  one-half  days;  for 
Peoria,  via  Ottawa,  Tuesdays  and  Saturdays;  for 
Galena,  via  Dixon's  Ferry,  Tuesdays  and  Satur- 
days; time  five  days;  for  Green  Bay,  via  Mil- 
waukee, Tuesdays,  4  a.  m.;  for  Vincennes,  via 
Danville,  Saturdays.  The  trip  to  Joliet  (it  was 
called  "Juliet,"  then,  so  had  its  historic  name 
fallen  on  evil  days;  Miss  Martineau  looked  for 
Romeo,  also,  on  the  prairie)  could  be  made  in 
fourteen  hours,  two  and  one-half  miles  per  hour. 

Across  the  western  prairie  the  trip  was  pleas- 
ant in  summer  time,  although  the  road  w?,s  a 
mere  widening  of  the  old  Indian  trail  that,  in 
spring  and  fall,  became  a  ditch.  The  road  to 
Galena  was  an  extension  of  Ogden  avenue.  Bar- 
ney Laughton  had  a  tavern  near  the  present  site 
of  the  Burlington  depot  at  Riverside  that  was 
a  favorite  resort  of  Chicagoans  of  the  thirties, 
but  the  first  relay  station  for  horses  was  at 
Brush  Hill,  now  Fullersburg,  near  Hinsdale,  and 
two  miles  from  any  railway.  An  old  stagecoach 
tavern  of  seventy  years  ago  is  still  standing  at 


55 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Brush  Hill.  The  next  station  was  at  Naperville, 
•A  thriving  settlement,  and  the  third  at  Aurora 
on  the  Fox  river,  where  the  first  store  was  built 
about  1835  or  1836. 

The  Archer  road,  which  was  completed  in 
1836  to  Lockport,  ran  through  Summit  and  on 
to  Joliet  and  La  Salle,  the  head  of  navigation 
on  the  Illinois.  The  Green  Bay  road  was  marked 
by  stakes  and  blazed  trees,  and  the  streams  were 
spanned  by  puncheon  bridges.  Ouilmette, 
Kinzie's  old  French  voyageur,  lived  at  Gross 
Point  (now  Willmette,  and  why  doesn't  the 
town  restore  its  historic  spelling?).  Waukegan 
was  not  settled,  but  Kenosha — then  called  South- 
port — had  been  platted.  At  Eacine  was  simply 
a  log  bridge  over  Boot  river.  Milwaukee  had 
four  hundred  inhabitants — ' '  three  hundred  ninety- 
three  men  and  seven  women"  as  the  Sentinel  of 
1836  dolefully  confessed,  but  it  aspired  to  rival 
Chicago. 

Chicago  river  had  begun  to  smell  bad,  for 
there  were  soap  and  candle  and  oil  works, 
slaughter  houses,  and  a  tannery  along  its  banks. 
And  it  was  noisy  with  its  vessels  discharging 
on  the  wharves,  its  brick  and  lumber  yards,  its 
grist  and  saw  mills,  its  plow  works  and  wagon 
shop,  its  smelting  furnace  and  foundry.  The 
place  began  to  take  on  metropolitan  airs,  al- 
though the  mud  was  deep  and  pigs  and  cows 
ran  at  large;  the  bridge  gave  way  to  the 
primitive  ferry-boats,  and  water  was  peddled 
from  house  to  house  in  carts.  But  people  could 
no  longer  throw  things  into  the  river,  push  stove 
pipes  through  board  walls,  or  carry  borrowed 
fire  through  the  streets  in  shovels,  for  now  there 
were  ordinances. 

Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  Begun. — Such  was 
the  Chicago  of  1836  when,  in  December,  Fort 
Dearborn  was  evacuated  for  the  last  time  by 
United  States  troops.  On  July  4  of  that  year 
Chicago  had  its  last  gala  day  for  a  whole  decade, 
for  hard  times  trod  on  the  heels  of  the  boom. 
On  that  day  work  was  actually  begun  on  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  canal.  The  town  was 
awakened  by  three  cannon  shots  from  the  fort. 
Citizens  and  invited  guests  assembled  on  the 
public  square  where  there  was  then  a  one-story 
and  basement  brick  courthouse  with  a  Greek 
portico,  a  log  jail,  and  an  engine  house. 

At  eleven  o'clock  the  steamer  Chicago  that 
had  got  through  the  Dearborn  street  drawbridge, 
gaily  decorated  with  flags  and  bunting,  was  in- 
vaded by  cheering  crowds.  A  procession  of 
watercraft  moved  down  stream,  towed  by  horses. 
There  were  no  tugboats  in  those  days.  The  land 
procession  went  out  by  way  of  the  new  Archer 
road  to  the  new  house  of  the  canal  commission- 
ers on  Canal  port.  After  a  lot  of  speech  making, 
Colonel  Archer,  of  Lockport,  turned  out  the  first 
spadeful  of  earth  and  the  canal  was  begun. 

But  the  canal  was  no  sooner  begun  than  the 
panic  broke  over  the  West.  In  order  to  under- 
stand both  the  extraordinary  speculative  fever 


which  swept  the  country  in  '35  and  '36  and  the 
panic  which  followed  in  '37,  one  must  under- 
stand the  peculiar  financial  situation. 

President  Jackson  had  been  reflected  in  1832 
under  pledge  to  destroy  the  United  States  bank, 
whose  charter  was  to  expire  in  1836.  Jackson 
believed  that  state  banks  would  develop  the 
south  and  west  more  rapidly,  and  it  was  the 
policy  of  the  administration  to  favor  the  estab- 
lishment of  state  banks.  In  1833  he  instructed 
the  secretary  of  the  treasury  to  deposit  all 
public  moneys  in  state  banks. 

Jackson  and  the  Banking  System. — State 
banks  immediately  multiplied.  Illinois  re- 
chartered  its  state  bank  at  Shawneetown  and 
established  six  branches.  One  of  these  was  at 
Chicago,  where  the  need  of  a  bank  was  becom- 
ing urgent.  Chicago's  first  bank  was  open  and 
ready  for  business  on  the  corner  of  La  Salle  and 
South  Water  streets  in  December,  1835,  and  be- 
gan to  do  an  enormous  business,  one  firm  alone 
depositing  $700  a  day.  This  was  just  at  the 
height  of  the  craze  for  speculation  in  land. 

After  having  made  the  system  of  state  banks 
possible,  President  Jackson  apparently  became 
afraid  of  the  flood  of  state  bank  notes  which 
appeared,  since  few  of  them  were  redeemable 
in  gold  or  silver.  He  directed  the  land  offices 
of  the  government  to  accept  only  specie  in  pay- 
ment for  claims.  Gold  and  silver  were,  in  con- 
sequence, withdrawn  from  the  East  by  emigrants 
seeking  homesteads  in  the  West.  The  eastern 
banks  became  crippled,  while  the  West  was 


FIRST    COOK    COUNTY    COURTHOUSE. 

flooded   with  good  money  from   the  government 
deposits. 

Since  banks  can  make  money  only  by  loaning 
it,  this  specie  was  loaned  out  at  low  rate.  Every 
business  man  in  Chicago  borrowed  money  to 
speculate  in  land,  for  money  was  cheap  and 
land  values  were  soaring.  For  the  chance  to 
grow  rich  in  a  year,  the  hardest-headed  men 
risked  everything  they  had.  In  the  town  that 
numbered  but  4,000  one  firm  reported  trans- 
actions in  real  estate  amounting  to  $1,800,000 
in  ten  months,  and  this  represented  but  a  frac- 
tion of  the  total  dealings  in  land.  The  sale  of 
public  lands  here,  and  throughout  the  South 


56 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


and  West,  was  of  such  vast  proportions  that  the 
public  debt  was  wiped  out  and  the  government 
had  $50,000,000  surplus. 

Whenever  the  government  accumulates  a  sur- 
plus the  public  always  clamors  to  have  some- 
thing done  with  it.  People  abhor  idle  money 
as  nature  abhors  a  vacuum;  they  want  it  back, 
in  one  form  or  another.  In  this  instance  it  was 
decided  to  call  in  this  surplus,  which  was  on 
deposit  in  the  state  banks,  and  to  distribute  it 
pro  rata  among  the  state  treasuries,  to  be  spent 
on  public  improvements.  So  large  a  sum  as 
$50,000,000  could  not  be  withdrawn  from  the 
banks  all  at  once  without  creating  a  scarcity  of 
money.  The  government  refused  to  accept  any- 
thing from  the  banks  but  the  gold  and  silver 
it  had  deposited,  thus  repudiating  the  notes  of 
the  state  banks  it  had  called  into  existence. 
Eastern  banks  went  down  with  a  crash,  for  the 
gold  and  silver  were  in  the  West;  mills  and 
factories  closed;  mercantile  houses  failed; 
laborers  were  thrown  out  of  employment;  there 
were  bread  riots  in  New  York  city! 

The  Panic  of  '37. — It  was  not  believed  that 
the  West  would  suffer  from  the  money  crisis 
in  the  East,  for  there  was  no  such  intimate 
connection  between  the  two  sections,  in  busi- 
ness and  finance,  as  there  is  today.  There  was 
plenty  of  paper  money,  such  as  it  was,  even 
after  the  government  specie  deposite  were  with- 
drawn, and  the  panic  might  have  been  delayed 
had  not  congress,  in  July,  1836,  passed  a  law 
which  prohibited,  "wildcat"  banking;  that  is, 
the  issuing  of  irredeemable  paper  money.  This 
law  came  into  force  just  at  the  time  when  the 
government  had  its  specie  safe  in  Washington, 
and  when  prices  of  land  and  every  necessity 
of  life  had  been  inflated  to  double  the  amount 
of  all  the  gold  and  silver  in  circulation.  Joseph 
N.  Balestier,  a  resident  of  the  town  at  the 
time,  has  described  the  plight  of  Chicago: 

The  year  1837  will  ever  be  remembered  as 
the  era  of  protested  notes — the  year  of  wrath 
to  mercantile,  producing,  and  laboring  interests. 
Misery  and  despair  were  stamped  on  all  counte- 
nances. Broken  fortunes,  blasted  hopes,  aye, 
and  blighted  reputations,  were  the  legitimate 
offspring  of  those  pestilential  times.  The  land 
resounded  with  the  groans  of  ruined  men  and 
sobs  of  defrauded  women.  It  was  a  scene  of 
woe  and  desolation.  Trusting  to  the  large  sums 
due  him,  the  land  speculator  involved  himself 
more  deeply  until  his  fate  was  as  pitiable  as 
that  of  his  defrauded  dupes.  Firms  and  in- 
dividuals went  into  bankruptcy,  values  melted 
like  snow.  Real  as  well  as  paper  fortunes, 
vanished;  nothing  remained  but  debt  and 
disaster. 

The  last  act  of  this  financial  tragedy  now 
began.  People  cried  out  that  there  was  bound- 
less wealth  in  the  soil  of  Illinois,  that  needed 
only  people  to  dig  it  out.  Under  the'  popular 
clamor  the  Illinois  legislature,  as  did  the  law- 


making  bodies  of  many  states,  in  the  absenor 
of  a  general  banking  law,  projected  its  own 
banking  system,  based  wholly  on  state  credit. 
The  state  needed  population;  to  get  population 
quickly  it  must  build  roads,  railroads,  and 
canals,  and  improve  the  navigation  of  rivers. 
To  do  this  it  must  have  money.  To  get  money 
state  bonds  were  issued  and  offered  for  sale.  In 
an  act  of  the  Illinois  legislature  passed  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1837,  an  appropriation  of  over  $10,000,- 
000  was  made  for  public  improvements. 

State  bonds  to  this  amount  were  deposited  in 
the  banks.  These  formed  a  large  part  of  the 
capital  of  the  state  bank  and  its  branches.  It 
was  expected  that  the  improvements  would,  in 
tolls  and  increased  taxable  value  of  property, 
soon  bring  in  money  to  meet  the  interest  on 
the  bonds  and,  finally,  to  pay  off  the  loans  as 
they  fell  due.  In  a  word,  the  state  had  mort- 
gaged its  credit.  Unfortunately,  the  bankrupt 
public  had  little  money  to  invest  in  bonds,  and 
the  state 's  ability  to  meet  its  obligations  was 
doubted.  Population  did  not  come  in.  Between 
1837  and  1840  emigration  and  land  sales  fell 
off  to  a  small  fraction,  because  of  the  hard 
times. 

The  value  of  the  state  bonds  fell  away  below 
par  and  even  then  found  no  investors.  The 
bank  notes  that  had  been  issued  on  the  bonds 
soon  became  "wildcat."  No  one  would  take 
them  in  exchange  for  specie,  and  gold  and  silver 
went  completely  out  of  circulation. 

One  Expedient  Bred  Another. — To  this  "wild- 
cat ' '  money  based  on  the  worthless  bonds  of 
Illinois  was  added  "scrip."  Now  "scrip"  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  an  unsecured  promise 
to  pay.  Its  value  depends  wholly  on  the  hon- 
esty and  ability  to  pay  of  the  person  or  corpora- 
tion which  issues  it.  When  money  was  not  forth- 
coming from  the  sale  of  state  bonds  to  pay  the 
contractors  who  were  building  the  railroads  and 
digging  the  canal,  the  state  issued  certificates 
of  indebtedness  called  "scrip."  The  con- 
tractors, in  turn,  having  no  cash,  issued  their 
"scrip"  on  the  state  "scrip"  to  their  laborers. 
That  is,  the  contractor's  promise  to  pay  read 
something  like  this:  "I  promise  to  pay  this 
'scrip'  when  the  state  pays  me  on  its  'scrip.'  " 
The  laborers  made  all  their  purchases  in  the 
towns  with  this  "scrip."  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore firm  and  individuals  were  issuing  "scrip" 
of  their  own.  The  honorable  John  Wentworth, 
"Long  John,"  who  was  editing  the  Chicago 
Democrat  at  the  time,  has  described  Chicago's 
peculiar  financial  condition  in  1837  and  1838: 

The  town  came  to  be  flooded  with  little  tickets 
which  read:  "Good  for  one  loaf  of  bread;" 
"good  for  a  shave;"  "good  for  a  meal." 
These  certificates  of  indebtedness  passed  with- 
out question,  locally,  and  the  people  feit  no 
need  of  real  money  except  when  a  note  fell 
due  at  the  bank  or  they  wanted  postage  stamps. 
It  cost  twenty-five  cents  to  send  a  letter  to 


57 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


New  York  and  it  was  felt  to  be  a  hardship 
when  the  postoffice  put  up  a  sign:  "No  credit; 
no  scrip."  Still  there  were  stout  defenders  of 
"wildcat"  and  the  government  was  roundly 
denounced.  Some  wag  proposed  to  use  Indian 
'wampum  for  money  until  the  state  had  dis- 
posed of  its  bonds  for  real  money.  Then  mer- 
chants began  to  over-issue  scrip  as  the  state 
had  over-issued  bonds.  The  barber  had  too 
many  shaves  out;  the  baker  more  loaves,  on 
paper,  then  he  could  deliver. 

President    Jackson    was    gaining     wisdom     in 


finance  at  the  expense  of  a  long-suffering  public. 
In  1839  he  gave  the  death  blow  to  the  state 
banks  by  refusing  to  deposit  public  money  in 
banks  whose  notes  were  not  redeemable  in 
specie.  The  state  bank  notes  of  Illinois,  based 
as  they  were  on  state  bonds,  were  thus  offi- 
cially declared  to  be  unworthy  of  public  credit. 
The  state  bank  of  Illinois  collapsed  like  a  house 
of  cards.  For  two  years  Chicago  and  Illinois 
had  tried  every  desperate  expedient  to  stave 
off  the  panic,  but  now  public  a/id  private  enter- 
prises and  credit  went  down  together  in  over- 
whelming ruiu. 


CHAPTER  Vin. 


Development  of  Transportation.     (1840-1860.) 

Results  of  the  Panic. — The  year  1840  found 
Chicago,  which  had  been  incorporated  as  a  city 
in  1837,  stagnant  as  a  pond.  Emigration  had 
stopped;  a  network  of  unfinished  and  abandoned 
railroads  covered  the  state  of  Illinois.  Work 
on  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  was  still 
going  on,  on  a  "scrip"  basis,  but  was  to  cease 
altogether  with  the  legal  death  of  the  state 
bank  in  1843.  With  the  panic  speculators  had 
fled  from  Chicago  like  rats  from  a  leaky  ship. 
Land  sales  had  all  but  stopped.  The  hotels 
were  emptied  of  guests  and  the  streets  deserted. 
Business  had  vanished  like  smoke,  leaving 
4,000  ambitious,  resourceful  people  stranded 
amid  the  wreck  of  their  fortunes  and  without 
any  outlet  for  their  energies,  after  four  years 
of  feverish  activity  and  intoxicating  prosperity. 
The  people  were  first  dazed,  then  angry,  then 
desperate,  at  this  turn  of  fortune's  wheel.  There 
were  fewer  than  a  million  people  in  the  state 
of  Illinois,  while  the  bonded  state  debt  was 
over  $6,000,000.  To  meet  the  interest  taxes 
must  be  kept  up  to  boom-day  figures,  while  the 
value  of  property  had  fallen  to  a  fraction  of 
what  it  had  cost.  A  man  might  have  paid 
$100,000  for  a  block  of  land,  half  cash,  the 
balance  secured  by  notes.  When  the  financial 
panic  came  this  land  fell  to  $5,000  in  value, 
while  he  still  owed  $50,000  on  it  and  the  land 
continued  to  be  assessed  at  its  cost  price.  When 
the  outstanding  notes  fell  due  he  must  go  into 
bankruptcy  or  complete  his  ruin  by  meeting 
them.  The  state  did  pass  a  special  bankrupt 
law  to  relieve  such  cases  and  to  give  honest 
men  a  chance  to  begin  life  over  again.  Many 
men  kept  their  homes  only  because  no  buyers 
appeared  when  the  property  was  advertised  for 
sale  for  delinquent  taxes. 

In  this  desperate  state  of  affairs  there  arose 
a  cry  in  the  city  and  all  over  the  state,  for 
repudiation  of  the  public  debt  to  relieve  the 
people  of  burdensome  taxes.  A  mass-meeting 
was  called  in  Chicago  to  urge  this  measure. 
Scarcely  any  one  had  the  courage  to  resist  the 
popular  clamor.  All  honor  then  to  William  B. 


Ogden,  who  had  been  elected  Chicago's  first 
mayor  in  1837,  for  a  speech  which,  for  its  effect 
on  the  public,  should  be  ranked  among  the  great 
orations.  This  speech  unfortunately  was  not 
preserved,  and  only  its  import  can  be  given: 

"No  misfortune  is  so  great  as  personal  dis- 
honor; there  is  no  blot  on  the  escutcheon  of  a 
state  or  a  city  so  ineradicable  as  repudiation  of 
public  debt.  Do  not  dishonor  yourselves  and 
our  city.  Eemember  that  many  a  fortress  has 


\VILLIAM  Ft.  OGDEN. 
Chicago's  First  Mayor. 

been  saved  by  the  courage  of  the  garrison  in 
concealing  its  weakness.  Hard  times  pass  by 
waiting.  Loss  of  fortune  may  be  repaired  by 
industry  and  courage,  but  dishonor  is  a  stum- 
bling-block to  self-respect  and  the  confidence  of 
the  world.  I  have  suffered  loss  with  you,  but 
I  hope  I  have  lost  nothing  but  my  money. ' ' 

Cheers  greeted  this  speech,  which  strengthened 
the  faint-hearted.  They  knew  Mr.  Ogden  had 
courage,  honor,  resource,  confidence  in  himself 
and  in  the  future  of  Chicago. 


58 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Mr.  Ogden  reminded  the  people  that  Chicago's 
prosperity  had  been,  in  a  measure,  fictitious. 
It  had  fattened  on  what  had  been  brought  in 
by  speculators  and  emigrants.  It  had  bought, 
bought,  bought  of  the  East,  and  had  nothing 
of  its  own  to  sell.  The  farming  land  behind 
Chicago  could  feed  the  world,  but  the  farmer 
fifty  miles  away  did  not  raise  grain  because  he 
could  not  get  it  to  the  market.  In  a  few  years 
emigration  must  begin  again,  and  the  farmer 
must  have  transportation  facilities.  He  declared 
in  effect: 

"We  must  build  plank  roads.  That  is  the 
business  of  the  city  and  of  the  county. 

' '  We  must  have  the  river  and  harbor  im- 
proved to  accommodate  more  shipping.  That  is 
the  business  of  the  government. 

"We  must  finish  the  canal.  The  state  can- 
not do  it,  for  so  long  as  it  cannot  pay  the  in- 
terest on  the  bonds  now  outstanding  it  has  no 
credit.  We  must  build  that  canal  ourselves. 
It  will  cost  only  a  million  or  so." 

Here  Was  the  Chicago  Spirit. — Up  again  and 
doing;  no  time  for  repining.  The  truth  is  that 
the  young  city  had  a  group  of  wonderful  men, 
of  which  William  B.  Ogden  stood  at  the  head, 
the  most  courageous  and  resourceful.  It  had 
the  Hon.  John  Wentworth  in  Washington,  the 
first  congressman  ever  sent  from  territory  bor- 
dering on  Lake  Michigan,  and  a  greater  curiosity 
there  than  a  congressman  from  the  Philippines 
would  be  today.  Like  a  veteran  law-maker  he 
was  battering  at  the  gate  of  the  government  to 
get  Chicago  harbor  and  the  channel  of  the  Chi- 
cago and  Illinois  rivers  improved. 

And  Chicago,  to  its  lasting  gratitude,  had  that 
shrewd  and  honest  Scotchman,  the  private  bank- 
er, George  Smith.  It  was  to  be  1851  before 
Illinois  was  again  to  establish  a  new  banking 
system.  For  ten  years  business  was  to  be  con- 
ducted with  the  currency  of  other  states  that 
had  established  specie  payment,  and  with  private 
issues  of  banks  not  authorized  to  issue  money 
at  all.  The  entire  commercial  structure  rested 
for  a  decade  largely  on  the  personal  honor  of 
a  few  private  bankers,  of  whom  George  Smith 
was  a  type. 

Mr.  Smith  represented,  in  Chicago,  the  Wis- 
consin Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  company  of 
Milwaukee,  which  by  its  charter,  was  specifially 
forbidden  to  engage  in  banking  or  to  issue  bank 
notes.  George  Smith  did  not  issue  notes,  but 
simply  certificates  of  deposit,  which  circulated 
at  their  face  value,  because  every  dollar  issued 
stood  for  a  dollar  in  gold  or  silver  that  had 
been  intrusted  to  Mr.  Smith,  and  could  be  ex- 
changed for  specie  any  day.  By  1850,  he  had 
$1,000,000  in  the  certificates  in  circulation.  As 
one  chronicler  says:  "These  illegal  bills  issued 
honestly,  and  honestly  redeemed,  drove  out  of 
circulation  the  legally  issued  state  bank  bills, 
which  the  state  was  unable  to  redeem." 

It  would  be  impossible   here   to  give  a  com- 


plete list  of  the  men  who  pulled  Chicago  up  oat 
of  the  Slough  of  Despair  and  set  her  feet  se- 
curely on  the  road  to  fortune.  Indeed,  it  was 
with  a  long  pull,  a  strong  pull,  and  a  pull  all 
together,  that  Chicago's  citizens  set  about  the 
work.  Everybody  went  doggedly  at  the  near- 
est task  to  make  a  living,  to  get  through  the 
hard  times,  and  to  get  ready  for  the  more 
prosperous  future.  Many  who  were  completely 
ruined  went  away.  Professional  men  removed 
to  farms  they  had  pre-empted.  John  Dean  Caton, 
to  be  a  judge  on  the  bench  in  a  few  years,  was 
one  of  these.  Broken  in  fortune  and  in  health, 
he  turned,  temporarily,  to  the  plow,  cultivating 
a  farm  at  Plainfield  for  three  years,  until  health 
was  restored  and  there  was  money  to  be  made 
again  in  the  law  business. 

The  "Garden  City"  and 
How  It  Grew. — Chicago 
itself  began  to  draw  on 
that  old  bank,  Mother 
Earth,  that  never  yet  re- 
fused to  honor  the  drafts  of 
labor,  as  Governor  Reynolds 
has  so  quaintly  _said  of  Mis- 
sissippi Bubble  days.  Mr. 
Ogden  set  the  example  of 
spending  his  time  of  en- 
forced idleness  in  improv- 
ing his  depreciated  real  es- 
tate, laying  sidewalks, 
building  fences,  and  setting 
out  shade  and  orchard 
trees.  It  did  not  cost  much 
to  live  with  flour  at  three 
dollars  a  barrel  (in  boom 
days  it  had  been  twenty- 
eight),  wood  at  two  dollars 
a  cord  and  board  at  hotels 
two  dollars  a  week.  A  very 
little  money  could  be  made 
to  go  a  long  way  if  the  gar- 
den were  cultivated  and  the 
men  caught  fish  and  shot  game,  which  was  still 
abundant  on  the  prairie.  Men  no  longer  boasted 
of  the  rising  value  of  their  lots,  but  of  the 
yield  of  their  orchards  and  potato  patches.  In 
a  few  years  Chicago  bloomed  like  the  rose  and 
earned  its  name,  "Garden  City." 

In  1841  a  thin  stream  of  migration  began  to 
trickle  through  Chicago  and  the  city  added  one 
thousand  to  its  population.  By  1843  there  were 
7,580  people  here.  Many  men  resumed  business 
in  smaller  stores,  with  smaller  stocks  of  goods. 
Caution  had  been  learned,  but  caution  with 
boldness.  Work  on  the  canal  had  finally  ceased, 
but  no  sooner  were  the  tools  laid  down  than 
Mr.  Ogden  had  his  plan  for  resuming  work.  He 
proposed  that  the  holders  of  state  bonds,  whose 
money  had  already  been  sunk  in  the  canal, 
should  themselves  furnish  the  money  to  complete 
the  waterway  and  make  it  profitable.  The  re- 
payment of  money  so  advanced  was  to  be  se- 
cured by  the  revenues  from  canal  tolls  and  the 


John  L.  Wentworth 

(Long  John), 
Chicago's  First  Con- 
gressman. 


59 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


sale  of  canal  lots.  The  first  step  to  be  taken 
was  to  get  the  state  legislature  to  authorize 
such  a  plan.  This  was  done  in  the  winter  of 
1843  by  the  passage  of  a  carefully  drafted  bill. 
Two  years'  hard  work  lay  ahead  of  the  Chi- 
cago promoters  of  this  scheme.  Of  the  $5,000,- 
000  worth  of  bonds  only  $1,000,000  were  held  in 
Chicago,  the  rest  being  held  in  New  York  and 
London.  The  Chicago  men  agreed  to  furnish 
their  quota,  20  per  cent  of  the  sum  required  for 


MAP     SHOWING     CHICAGO'S    TRANSPORTATION 
LINES  IN  1850. 

the  completion  of  the  work.  A  committee  rep- 
resenting the  Chicago,  New  York,  and  London 
interests  went  over  the  route  of  the  canal  with 
engineers  and  expert  accountants,  examining  ex- 
cavations, levels,  locks,  dams,  and  making  cal- 
culations of  the  work  done,  and  to  be  done,  be- 
fore a  boat  could  go  through.  Estimates  were 
made  that  it  would  cost  $1,600,000  to  complete 
the  canal,  build  pumping  works  to  maintain  the 
water  level  over  the  ridge  at  Summit,  and  that 
three  years  would  be  required  for  the  work. 

Elaborate  reports  were  drawn  up  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  foreign  bondholders.  After  an- 
other tedious  delay  and  with  many  misgivings 
on -the  part  of  the  foreign  bondholders  the  re- 
quired sum  was  subscribed  and  work  was  re- 
sumed in  1845.  While  the  work  progressed 
through  engineering  difficulties,  sickness  among 
laborers,  and  strikes,  Mr.  Ogden  was  looking 
about  for  more  worlds  to  conquer,  in  the  shape 
of  other  means  of  transportation  for  Chicago. 

Public  sympathy  had  been  with  the  promoters 
of  the  canal.  Water  was  still  the  main  depend- 
ence for  transporting  goods  and  people  long  dis- 
tances. Chicago  business  men  were  entirely  sat- 


isfied with  the  lake  route  to  New  York,  and  in- 
different to  the  railway  lines  that  were  being 
pushed  westward.  When,  in  the  late  '40s,  the 
Michigan  Central  was  completed  to  New  Buf- 
falo, just  around  the  end  of  Lake  Michigan  from 
Chicago,  passengers  found  it  convenient  in  sum- 
mer to  use  a  combined  lake  and  rail  route  to 
New  York.  The  general  demand,  however,  was 
for  the  plank  road,  "the  poor  man's  railroad," 
free  to  everybody  and  running  to  every  farmer 's 
barn  door. 

Grain  Growing  Waited  for  Good  Roads.  The 
packing  business  was  in  a  flourishing  condition, 
but  grain  came  in  slowly.  Why  was  this?  It 
was  because  cattle  and  hogs  could  be  driven  in 
for  a  hundred  or  more  miles  over  any  kind  of 
road,  or  none  at  all,  foraging  on  the  way,  and  at 
little  expense.  But  wheat  and  corn  could  be 
brought  only  in  wagons.  The  roads  were  bad 
and  the  journey  slow,  tedious,  and  expensive, 
for  food  and  shelter  had  to  be  provided  at  night 
for  animals  and  dry  goods.  Fifty  miles  was 
the  limit  from  which  grain  could  be  profitably 
brought  to  Chicago  and  supplies  carried  back. 

The  first  plank  road  was  laid  out  on  the  stage- 
road  route  to  Brush  Hill,  a  distance  of  sixteen 
miles,  in  1840.  This  was  the  old  Indian  trail 
and  portage  followed  by  Marquette,  to  be  fol- 
lowed later  by  canal  and  railway  lines.  The  In- 
dians in  their  trails  laid  out  our  earliest  arteries 
of  trade,  and  expert  engineers  of  today  have,  in 
the  main,  followed  their  lead.  This  Southwest- 
ern plank  road  was  afterward  extended  to  Naper- 
ville. 

The  Northwestern  plank  road  followed  the 
North  branch  out  Milwaukee  avenue  to  Dutch- 
man's Point  and  crossed  by  the  old  Indian  port- 
age to  the  Desplaines.  The  Western  plank  road 
ran  to  Elgin.  By  1850  there  were  nearly  ninety 
miles  of  plank  roads  running  out  of  Chicago  over 
which  farm  wagons  could  be  driven  rapidly,  at 
all  seasons  of  the  year.  In  1848  there  were  said 
to  have  been  70,000  wagon  loads  of  produce 
brought  into  Chicago  over  these  roads,  an  aver- 
age of  two  hundred  a  day  for  every  working  day 
in  the  year. 

A  permanent  encampment  of  farmers,  with 
their  horses  and  caravans,  was  maintained  on 
the  Fort  Dearborn  reservation  lots  that  had  not 
been  sold.  This  was  on  the  lake  shore  where 
the  Illinois  Central  suburban  station  now  stands 
at  the  foot  of  Randolph  and  Lake  streets,  and 
westward  to  the  Rush  street  bridge.  Retail 
business  flourished,  for  the  farmers  bought  here 
all  their  supplies,  lumber,  hardware,  farm  tools, 
and  machinery,  groceries,  dry  goods,  furniture, 
wagons,  seeds,  and  salt  for  stock  and  the  curing 
of  meat.  The  volume  of  retail  business  of  Chi- 
cago in  the  '40s  and  early  '50s  was  far  in  ex- 
cess of  the  needs  of  its  own  population.  Plank 
roads  continued  to  be  built  all  through  the  '50s 
and  played  an  important  part  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  city. 


60 


THE  STOKY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


When,  therefore,  Mr.  Ogden  proposed  to  build 
a  railroad,  in  1846,  he  was  greeted  with  a  storm 
of  opposition  in  Chicago.  The  newspapers  were 
filled  with  protests  from  citizens  who  declared 
that  railroads  would  ruin  trade,  for  little  towns 
would  spring  up  along  the  lines  and  farmers 
would  no  longer  come  to  Chicago.  To  this  argu- 
ment even  the  promoters  seem  to  have  had  no 
answer  ready,  for  a  railroad  was  an  experiment 
at  best,  and  no  one  had  quite  figured  out  what 
the  consequences  of  building  one  were  to  be. 


VESTIGES  OF  THE  CANAL  PORT. 

In  1836,  at  the  height  of  the  boom,  a  charter 
had  been  granted  to  the  Galena  and  Chicago 
Union  railway  company.  In  the  name  of  the 
proposed  road,  Galena  had  been  given  priority 
over  Chicago  because  it  was  much  older  and 
more  important.  Work  was  actually  begun  in 
Chicago,  piles  being  driven  and  stringers  laid  out 
West  Madison  street.  Grading  a  roadbed  across 
the  low  prairie,  that  was  much  of  the  time  under 
water,  was  not  considered  feasible.  With  the 
coming  of  the  financial  panic  of  1837  this  road, 
with  a  dozen  others  in  the  state,  was  abandoned 
and  all  but  forgotten. 

How  Chicago's  First  Eailway  Was  Promoted. 
Mr.  Ogden  proposed  to  acquire  the  charter  of 
this  road  and  to  connect  Lake  Michigan  and  the 
Mississippi  by  rail.  In  the  winter  of  1846  a 
railroad  convention  was  held  at  Eockford,  the 
halfway  station  on  the  proposed  line,  to  effect 
an  organization.  William  B.  Ogden,  J.  Young 
Scammon,  William  H.  Brown,  and  Isaac  M.  Ar- 
nold, of  Chicago,  were  there  with  delegates  from 
Galena,  Freeport,  Dixon,  and  Elgin.  In  the  face 
of  bitter  opposition  from  the  stage-coach  set- 
tlements, which  feared  the  ruin  of  the  tavern 
business  and  markets  for  horses,  the  company 
was  organized  and  directors  elected.  The  char- 
ter was  transferred  to  the  new  company  and  the 
real  work  began. 

Mr.  Ogden  and  Mr.  Scammon  went  over  the 
entire  route  from  Chicago  to  Galena  in  carriages, 
investigating  conditions  and  soliciting  subscrip- 
tions to  stock.  Chicago  merchants  had  so  little 
sympathy  with  the  scheme  that  they  contributed 
only  $20,000  to  it.  In  the  country,  however,  the 
farmers,  both  on  the  plank  road  and  beyond  it, 
received  the  committee  with  delight.  They  knew 
what  it  was  to  haul  wheat  to  Chicago,  count 
their  small  profit  and  wonder  if.  under  present 


conditions,  all  this  plowing,  sowing,  reaping  and 
journeying  were  worth  while. 

Mr.  Ogden  was  in  his  element,  having  heart- 
to-heart  talks  with  pioneers  in  cabins  and  mak- 
ing speeches  in  crowded  log  schoolhouses.  Farm- 
ers subscribed  for  stock,  often  for  only  one 
share,  and  'even  when  compelled  to  borrow  the 
first  installment  of  $2.50  till  after  harvest.  Farm- 
ers' wives  contributed  their  butter  and  egg 
money  to  the  enterprise. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  stock  was  sold  to  the  farmer,  of  northern 
Illinois,  to  be  paid  for  from  month  to  month  on 
the  installment  plan.  Mr.  Ogden  himself  mar- 
veled at  the  result,  for  only  two  and  one-half 
per  cent  of  all  the  land  tributary  to  the  road 
was  under  cultivation.  Such  courage  buoyed 
him  up  for  his  gigantic  task.  Three  hundred 
and  sixty-three  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  stock 
was  sold  all  together,  and  a  small  loan  secured  in 
New  York,  to  add  to  the  first  two  installments 
that  had  been  paid  in  as  a  working  fund. 

With  something  over  $20,000  in  the  treasury 
the  first  grade  peg  for  the  road  was  set  near  the 
corner  of  Kinzie  and  Halstcd,  then  the  western 
limits  of  the  city.  Although  a  member  of  the 
city  council,  Mr.  Ogden  was  unable  to  secure  the 
passage  of  an  ordinance  permitting  the  road  to 
enter  the  city,  such  was  the  opposition  to  it. 

It  did  not  take  much  money  in  those  days  to 
build  a  railroad  across  the  prairies  of  Illinois; 
but  it  took  more  courage  and  faith  and  perse- 
verance and  financial  ability  to  build  the  first 
forty  miles  out  of  Chicago  than  it  did  a  genera- 
tion later  to  push  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
The  work  was  done  with  the  utmost  economy, 
the  bed  simply  being  graded  up  from  dirt  dug 
from  ditches  at  either  side.  Such  things  as  sid- 
ings, turn-tables,  and  station-houses  were  not  to 
be  thought  of. 

Once  a  loan  was  sought  in  the  East.  ' '  A  rail- 
road west  of  Lake  Michigan  I  Madness!"  ex- 
claimed a  New  York  banker.  "Twelve  per  cent 
in  prospect!  I  can  get  seven  per  cent  on  safe 
investments  in  New  York." 

In  one  way  and  another  the  roadbed  was 
graded  out  to  the  Desplaines  river  ten  miles  to 
the  west.  Now  came  the  question  of  rails  and 
rolling  stock.  A  quantity  of  old  strap  rails,  two 
little  second-hand  passenger  cars,  six  freight 
cars  and  two  engines,  were  offered  the  company 
for  $150,000  on  five  years'  credit  if  the  directors 
would  give  their  personal  notes  as  security.  Mr. 
George  Smith,  the  Scotch  banker,  loaned  $20,000 
on  Mr.  Scammon 's  personal  note,  so  little  did 
he  believe  in  the  new  road,  although  himself  a 
director  in  the  company  and  anxious  to  have 
tho  enterprise  succeed.  The  city  council  gave 
grudging  permission  to  lay  a  temporary  track  to 
the  North  branch  so  the  rolling  stock  could  be 
conveyed  to  the  road. 


61 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


The  First  Train  out  of  Chicago:  November 
20,  1848,  the  board  of  directors,  a  number  of 
stockholders,  and  several  editors  of  city  papers, 
boarded  the  rough  cars  for  a  "flying  trip"  to 
the  Desplaines  river  behind  what  is  known  to 
fame  as  the  "Pioneer"  engine.  On  the  return 
trip  a  wagon-load  of  wheat  was  brought  to 
Chicago. 


"PIONEER"  ENGINE,  1848. 

A  week  later,  the  business  men  of  Chicago 
were  electrified  by  the  announcement  that  over 
thirty  loads  were  at  the  Desplaines  river  await- 
ing shipment,  and  wheat-buyers  were  informed 
that  they  must  secure  their  wheat  at  Desplaines 
river  instead  of  at  the  Eandolph  street  bridge. 
In  the  first  year,  this  road  earned  $2,000  a  month; 
in  the  second,  $9,000.  By  January,  1850,  the 
road  had  been  completed  to  Elgin,  forty  miles 
away.  It  then  had  sixteen  locomotives,  forty- 
one  passenger  cars,  twenty-two  baggage  cars, 
860  freight  cars,  122  flat  cars,  134  gravel  cars, 
and  a  pay  car.  Soon  the  road  was  paying  10, 
12  and  16  per  cent  dividends  semi-annually. 
Before  it  had  got  half  way  to  Galena  its  stock 
had  gone  up  to  140  and  there  was  very  little 
for  sale  at  any  price. 

For  the  first  year  passengers  got  on  and  off 
the   ears  from  the   open  prairie   at  Kinzie  and 
Halsted  streets,  where  there  was  simply  a  shed 
to  shelter  the   engines.     In   1849   the  road  was 
permitted  to  enter  the  city,  and 
built  the  first  wooden  depot  at 
West    Kinzie    and    Canal.     In 
1851  it  finished  its  drawbridge 
across    the    North    branch    and 
built   a    depot    at    Kinzie    and 
Wells,  where  the  Northwestern 
station  stands  today.    The  road 
was  pushed  steadily  westward, 
reaching  Elgin  in   1850,  Belvi- 
dere  in  1852,  Freeport  in  1853, 
Dixon   in    1854   and   Galena  in 
1855.      This    line    became    the 

nucleus    of    the    great    North-     

railway      system      of       OLD  GALENA  DEPOT. 


To  say  that  Chicago  was  wild  with  joy  would 
be  putting  the  fact  mildly.  This  canal,  on  which 
Joliet  and  La  Salle  had  made  a  report  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  years  before,  that  had  been 
advocated  by  territorial,  state,  and  national  gov- 
ernments, had  required  twelve  years  and  $7,000,- 
000  for  its  actual  construction.  The  first  year 
demonstrated  its  usefulness,  for  it  collected 
$87,000  in  tolls  or  twelve  and  one-half  per  cent 
on  the  capital  invested.  Laborers  along  the  line 
became  homesteaders.  Land  rose  in  value  and 
immigration  rapidly  filled  up  the  valley  of  the 
Illinois.  There  was  immediate  talk  of  widening 
and  deepening  the  waterway  to  a  ship-canal  so 
that  ocean-going  vessels  could  steam  from  the 
Mississippi  to  London  through  New  York  and 
Montreal.  Canada  had  the  Welland  canal  well 
under  way  around  Niagara  falls,  and  was  dig- 
ging another  around  the  La  Chine  rapids  in  the 
St.  Lawrence.  The  world  was  engaged  in  new 
solutions  of  the  problems  of  rapid  transportation. 
The  first  vessel  was  to  clear  from  Chicago  for 
Europe  in  1856. 

Lake  craft  had  undergone  some  striking 
changes  to  meet  the  new  demands  of  traffic.  Side- 
wheel  steamers  were  giving  place  to  propellers. 
By  1850  there  were  twenty  propellers  on  Lake 
Michigan,  beside  schooners,  barks,  brigs,  and 
side-wheelers.  In  1853,  a  daily  line  of  boats  was 
running  to  Milwaukee,  and  weekly  trips  were 
made  to  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in  the  season. 

River  and  harbor  improvements,  however, 
were  not  kept  up  to  the  requirements  of  trade. 
Small  appropriations  were  doled  out  by  the  gov- 
ernment, work  was  planned,  begun,  and  left 
unfinished.  Piers  rotted  and  a  dangerous  sand- 
bar formed  in  the  channel.  A  steam  dredge  was 
needed  to  deepen  the  river  for  the  boats  of 
heavier  draft  then  used. 


western 
today. 

Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  Opened:  On  the 
16th  of  April,  1848,  seven  months  before  the  first 
train  ran  out  of  Chicago,  the  Illinois  and  Mich- 
igan canal  was  formally  opened  at  Lockport. 
A  week  later  the  "General  Thornton"  came 
through  from  New  Orleans  with  a  cargo  of  sugar 
for  Buffalo,  where  it  arrived  two  weeks  sooner 
than  a  boat  that  had  made  the  voyage  by  way 
of  New  York  and  the  Erie  canal. 


(At  Kinzie  and  Canal  Streets.) 


Congressman  Wentworth  had  exhausted  both 
eloquence  and  patience  in  four  years'  untiring 
work  at  Washington.  Jackson,  the  friend  of 
internal  improvements,  was  dead,  and  Polk  car- 
ried his  indifference  to  the  needs  of  the  West  so 
far  as  to  veto  appropriations  for  improvements 
in  Chicago  harbor  and  river.  Exasperated  by 
all  this  Mr.  Wentworth  organized  a  monster  in- 
dignation meeting  to  be  held  at  Chicago. 


THE  STOKY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


River  and  Harbor  Convention:  This  was  held 
in  July,  1847.  Delegates  from  eighteen  out  of 
twenty-nine  states  were  present,  and  Illinois  was 
represented  from  thirty-five  counties.  Among 
the  delegates  was  Congressman  Abraham  Lincoln 
from  Springfield,  but  he  took  no  prominent  part 
in  the  discussions  and  gave  no  evidence  of  his 
future  greatness. 

An  immense  tent  had  been  raised  on  the  pub- 
lic square  and  20,000  people  listened  to  the 
speeches.  The  convention  was  a  direct  and 
national  protest  against  the  attitude  of  the  ad- 
ministration toward  the  West.  Little  came  of 
it;  it  was  five  years  before  an  appropriation  was 
secured  for  Chicago  harbor  and  that  was  in- 
adequate. Chicago  herself  dredged  the  river, 
while  the  government  built  a  new  lighthouse  and 
a  marine  hospital. 

But  the  convention  served  to  advertise  the 
city  widely.  From  eighteen  states  leading  men 
had  come  and  spied  out  the  richness  of  the  land. 
By  1848  Chicago  had  grown 
to  20,000  in  population,  the 
canal  was  open,  and  ten  miles 
of  railway  were  in  operation. 
It  no  longer  seemed  like  mad- 
ness to  build  railroads  west  of 
Lake  Michigan.  The  time 
was  ripe  for  eastern  capital- 
ists to  take  up  seriously  the 
idea  of  constructing  the  Illi- 
nois Central  railroad. 

For  many  years  Chicago  had 
realized  that  its  trade  was 
purely  local.  The  government 
not  only  favored  the  East,  but 
the  state  of  Illinois  favored 
Kaskaskia  and  Galena  on  the 
Mississippi,  and  even  St. 
Louis,  rather  than  the  city  on 
the  lake.  This  was  natural, 
for  from  1785  to  1835  migra- 
tion was  into  and  through  the 
southern  part  of  the  state,  as 
has  been  explained  before.  At 
the  time  of  the  admission  of 
Illinois  to  the  Union,  1818, 
Kaskaskia  was  the  center  of 
population,  which  was  massed 
along  the  Mississippi,  the  (The' 

Ohio,  and  the  Okaw  rivers.  It 
became,  therefore,  the  first  capital.  Then  Van- 
dalia  on  the  Okaw,  was  chosen  for  its  central 
position.  Finally  Springfield  on  the  Sangamon 
was  selected  as  the  seat  of  state  government, 
although  it  was  thought  to  be  pretty  far  north. 
All  of  these  towns,  as  well  as  Galena,  had  direct 
water  communication  with  St.  Louis.  For  all 
purposes  of  trade  they  were  nearer  New  Or- 
leans than  Chicago. 

Chicago  off  Main  Artery  of  Trade.  When, 
therefore,  the  Illinois  "state  wagon  road  was 
laid  out,  it  ran  from  Vincennes,  Ind.,  to  Cahokia, 
just  below  St.  Louis.  The  first  plank  road  from 
Springfield  ran  to  the  Mississippi.  Even  the 


canal,  from  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Illi- 
nois river  to  Lake  Michigan,  was  thought  of  as 
an  outlet  to  the  East  for  St.  Louis  and  southern 
Illinois  river  towns.  Kaskaskia  and  Galena  were 
thought  of,  and  with  good  cause,  as  rivals  of 
St.  Louis,  rather  than  Chicago.  The  trade  of 
all  but  the  northeastern  corner  of  Illinois  drifted 
steadily  riverward,  only  eastward-bound  through 
freight,  and  some  local  freight,  going  via  Chi- 
cago, after  the  canal  was  opened. 

Chicago  knew  this  and  was  doing  some  hard 
thinking  on  the  question  of  how  it  was  to  get 
the  trade  of  central  Illinois.  Among  the  men 
here  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the  "Little 
Giant, "  as  he  was  called.  He  was  then  repre- 
senting Illinois  in  the  United  States  senate,  and 
his  associate  was  Judge  Sidney  Breese,  who  has 
been  called  the  father  of  the  Illinois  Central. 

As  early  as  1839  Judge  Breese  had  conceived 
the  idea  of  a  north  and  south  line  that  should 
connect  Cairo  with  Galena.  Hara  tiraas  had 


RUSH   STREET  BRIDGE   TODAY. 

X  marks  former  site  of  Fort  Dearborn.) 

caused  the  project  to  be  abandoned.  To  the 
original  scheme,  Senator  Douglas  now  added  the 
idea  of  running  the  main  line  to  the  Illinois 
river,  straight  up  from  Cairo,  and  then  branching 
to  Galena  and  Chicago. 

The  road  was  to  be  called  the  Illinois  Central, 
but  the  public  immediately  nicknamed  it  the 
' '  St.  Louis  Cut  Off. ' '  It  was  instantly  apparent 
that  such  a  railway  system  would  divert  trade 
from  the  great  river  town  to  Cairo,  Chicago,  and 
Galena.  Upon  none  of  these  had  St.  Louis  ever 
looked  as  a  possible  rival. 


63 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


Ill  Wind  to  Kaskaskia  Blows  Good  to  Chicago: 
Impetus  was  probably  given  to  the  project  by 
the  partial  destruction  of  Kaskaskia.  In  1844 
this  historic  town  had  grown  to  10,000  in  popu- 
lation, and  its  people  drew  wealth  from  the  river 
trade.  The  first  great  flood  of  the  Mississippi 
swept  right  across  the  low-lying  town  and  left 
it  a  ruin.  Business  and  wealth  fled  to  St.  Louis, 
and  Illinois  lost  her  river  metropolis.  Flood 
after  flood  has  rolled  over  it  since,  and  com- 
pleted the  desolation.  There  are  today  a  dilapi- 
dated village  on  the  site  and  a  few  historic 
houses  falling  to  decay,  but  in  any  June  freshet 
the  last  vestige  of  Illinois'  earliest  French  set- 
tlement may  crumble  into  the  flood.  St.  Louis, 
Chicago,  and  Cairo  have  profited  by  Kaskaskia 's 
destruction. 

In  a  kind  of  resentment  at  this  turn  of  for- 
tune, southern  Illinois  turned  her  eyes  and  hopes 
on  Cairo.  This  feeling,  in  all  probability,  had 
something  to  do  with  Judge  Breese's  revival  of 
interest  in  the  Illinois  Central  road,  for  Judge 
Breese  was  a  southern  Illinois  man,  with  affec- 
tion for  old  Kaskaskia.  Douglas  and  Breese  car- 
ried the  whole  matter  through  the  United  States 
senate  in  short  order,  securing  to  the  Illinois 
Central  railway  company  a  grant  of  2,595,000 
acres,  besides  a  right  of  way  200  feet  wide,  in 
a  strip  through  the  middle  of  the  state  of  Illi- 
nois. This  was  the  first  railroad  land  grant  ever 
made  by  the  government  and  established  a 
precedent  without  which  we  must  have  waited 
a  generation  or  more  for  our  great  Pacific  rail- 
roads. 

Illinois  Central  Railway  Begun.  The  millions 
needed  for  this  stupendous  undertaking  of  build- 
ing 700  miles  of  railway  through  a  sparsely 
settled  territory,  were  not  as  difficult  to  get  as 
the  few  thousands  Mr.  Ogden  had  required  for 
building  the  first  ten  miles  of  the  Galena  and 
Chicago  Union.  The  land  granted  had  a  re- 
markable value,  and  $17,000,000  was  borrowed  on 
2,000,000  acres.  Mr.  Roswell  B.  Mason  was  sent 
out  from  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  as  chief  engineer. 
Fortunately  this  gentleman,  who  remained  in 
Chicago  and  served  a  term  as  mayor,  has  left  full 
details  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  great 
road  was  built. 

His  journey  from  New  York  to  Chicago,  by 
water  and  rail,  took  five  days.  From  Chicago 
he  proceeded  to  La  Salle  by  packet  boat  over 
the  canal.  Thence  he  rode  in  a  light  wagon, 
over  the  route  to  Cairo,  through  Bloomington, 
Clinton,  Decatur,  Vandalia,  Eichview,  and  Jones- 
boro.  The  towns  were  from  twenty-five  to  sixty 
miles  apart.  High  water  and  cholera  were  both 
in  possession  of  Cairo,  and  Mr.  Mason's  stay  was 
brief  since,  as  he  says,  "there  was  a  very  lively 
prospect  of  being  drowned." 

Coming  back,  he  returned  to  Chicago  through 
Urbana  and  found  that,  in  128  miles,  there  was 
scarcely  a  settlement,  fn  just  one  month  he 
covered  800  miles.  -  Then  he  was  off  to  Galena. 


During  the  summer  he  mapped  the  entire  road, 
appointed  engineers  of  construction  in  the  divi- 
sions, and  gave  his  mind  up  to  the  problem  of 
how  to  get  construction  materials,  food,  clothing, 
shelter,  and  medicines,  to  various  points  along 
the  line.  New  York,  New  Orleans,  Cincinnati, 
Pittsburg,  St.  Louis,  and  Chicago  were  drawn 
upon.  Everything  was  brought  to  the  nearest 
river  points  on  flatboats.  Often  materials  had  to 
be  carried  one  hundred  miles  in  wagons  when 
there  were  no  roads,  and  men  and  teams  had  to 
be  imported. 

The  first  part  of  the  Illinois  Central  to  be 
completed  was  the  section  from  the  Calumet 
river  to  Twenty-second  street.  In  1852  a  tem- 
porary station  was  built  at  Twelfth  street.  This 
was  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Michigan 
Central  road,  which  had  extended  its  line  around 


JUDGE  SIDNEY  BREESE. 
"Father  of  the  Illinois  Central." 

the  end  of  the  lake  and  used  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral's right  of  way  into  Chicago.  The  Michigan 
Central  was  thus  the  third  railroad  to  run  into 
Chicago,  the  Lake  Shore  road  preceding  it  by 
two  months  and  the  Rock  Island  following  it  in 
the  autumn  of  the  same  year. 

In  1850  the  Illinois  Central  purchased  of  the 
government  for  the  sum  of  $45,000  all  that  was 
left  of  Fort  Dearborn  reservation,  thus  securing 
the  site  of  its  present  suburban  depot  at  the  foot 
of  Eandolph  and  Lake  streets.  A  few  lots  were 
presented  by  the  government  to  General  Beau- 
bien,  who  was  still  living.  The  old  blockhouse 
and  the  marine  hospital  were  all  of  Chicago 's 
famous  fort  that  was  left  to  the  government,  and 
these  were  soon  to  be  removed. 

And  now  the  railroad  was  not  only  to  occupy 
the  reservation,  but  was  to  lay  tracks  along  the 
lake  from  Twelfth  street  to  the  north  pier.  We 
often  ask  ourselves  today  how  Chicago  ever 


64 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


came  to  give  its  front  yard  and  shore  line  to  be 
disfigured  by  a  railway.  This  is  how  it  hap- 
pened. 

From  the  time  the  north  pier  was  built  in 
1833,  the  southward  current  of  the  lake  began 
to  deposit  sand  on  the  upper  side,  thus  gradu- 
ally extending  the  shore  line  north  of  the  river. 
Sweeping  around  the  end  of  the  pier,  an  eddy 
was  created  south  of  the  river  mouth  which  ate 
away  the  shore.  A  plank  facing  was  made  to 
check  the  erosion,  but  the  water  encroached 
steadily  until  it  washed  what  is  now  Michigan 
avenue. 

Something  had  to  be  done.  It  was  a  question 
of  millions  to  save  the  shore  line.  Neither  city 
nor  state  could  undertake  the  work  and  the  gov- 
ernment would  not. 

At  this  crisis,  the  Illinois  Central,  needing  a 
right  of  way  to  its  land  on  the  reservation,  of- 
fered to  build  track  on  piling,  inside  a  stone  crib 
breakwater,  across  the  shallow  water.  In  1852 


SOUTH  CLARK  STREET  IN  1857. 

it  was  empowered  by  the  state  legislature  to  lay 
tracks  four  hundred  feet  east  of  the  west  line  of 
Michigan  avenue.  The  road  spent  $2,000,000 
on  that  two-mile  stretch  of  tracks.  The  shore 
was  saved  and  with  it  two  miles  of  frontage  on 
Michigan  avenue,  now  worth  millions,  and  all 
of  the  park  strip  from  Randolph  to  Park  row. 

The  work  was  completed  in  1857,  just  as  the 
panic  which  preceded  the  Civil  war  broke  over 
the  country.  The  Illinois  Central  almost  went 
under,  with  many  other  big,  new  enterprises  that 
were  not  yet  on  a  secure  footing.  It  was  years 
before  it  began  to  reap  from  the  seed  sown 
along  our  lake  front,  but  from  that  seed  it  has 
now  reaped  a  hundred  fold.  It  has  made  much 
land  outside  its  original  grant,  and  this  has 
been  the  cause  of  litigation  in  the  courts  be- 
tween the  city  and  the  railway. 

CHICAGO  IN  THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  Although 
party  politics  had  much  to  do  with  the  Mexican  war, 
the  Democrats  favoring  it  and  their  opponents  claim- 
ing the  war  was  provoked  to  help  the  South  extend 
slavery,  when  the  Democratic  president  called  for 
50,000  troops  to  go  to  Mexico,  Chicago  responded 
promptly  with  two  companies  under  Captain  Lyman 


When  the  track  was  run  from  Twelfth  street 
to  Randolph,  the  rails  were  laid  on  piles  sunk  in 
the  shallow  water.  A  lagoon  lay  between  the 
right  of  way  and  Michigan  avenue  which  was 
not  entirely  filled  up  until  after  the  great  Chi- 
cago fire  of  1871,  when  it  furnished  a  convenient 
dumping  ground  for  the  debris  of  the  fire. 

But  now,  in  1856,  having  got  its  tracks  laid 
in  the  reservation,  the  Illinois  Central  station 
was  built  at  Randolph  street.  It  was  of  cut 
stone,  five  hundred  feet  long  and  one  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  wide,  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
West.  At  its  north  end  along  the  river  bank  and 
pier  were  the  great  grain  elevators. 

By  1856  the  Illinois  Central  reached  Cairo  and 
was  earning  $2,500,000  a  year.  Emigrants  had 
begun  to  pour  into  the  railroad  lands  and  the 
wheat,  corn,  and  live  stock  of  southern  Illinois 
were  seeking  a  market  in  Chicago.  St.  Louis  had 
been  cut  off  from  the  trade  of  central  Illinois, 
which  now  sought  Chicago  and  Cairo. 

The  story  of  the  building  of 
but  two  roads  is  told  here,  be- 
cause these  two  were  typical 
of  conditions  under  which  rail- 
roads were  built  in  the  forties 
and  fifties.  In  the  decade  be- 
tween 1848  to  1859,  however, 
the  beginnings  of  ten  trunk 
lines  running  out  of  Chicago 
were  made.  In  1850  the  C.,  B. 
&  Q.  road  had  ten  miles  in 
operation  between  Aurora  and 
Turner  Junction.  By  1856  it 
had  reached  the  Mississippi  at 
Quincy. 

In  1852  the  first  Michigan 
Southern  train  ran  into  its 
depot  near  Gurnee's  tannery 
on  the  South  branch.  This 
road  and  the  Rock  Island 
which  was  ready  for  business  the  same  year, 
caused  South  Clark  street  to  be  built  up.  The 
Chicago  and  Alton  reached  Joliet  in  1857,  and 
the  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  connected  our  city 
with  Milwaukee  in  1854.  The  Pittsburg,  Fort 
Wayne,  and  Chicago  ran  into  Chicago  in  1856. 
By  1860  there  were  eleven  trunk  lines  and 
twenty  branches  running  into  Chicago,  aggre- 
gating 4,736  miles  of  tracks,  with  earnings  of 
$20,000,000  a  year.  The  country  has  never  seen 
another  such  decade  of  railroad  building.  In 
1857  the  work  of  developing  transportation 
facilities  was  to  receive  a  check;  for  the  Civil 
war  which  was  to  break  out  in  1860  cast  its 
shadow  of  hard  times  before,  in  the  form  of  a 
decline  in  value  of  the  securities  of  southern 
states  which  circulated  largely  in  the  northern 
states. 

Mower  and  Captain  EHsha  Wells.  In  1847  another 
company  was  formed.  In  these  three  companies  we 
find  the  names  of  some  distinguished  citizens,  Murray 
F.  Tuley  and  Charles  C.  P.  Holden  being  notable. 
Other  companies  and  scattered  enlistments  made  up 
Chicago's  part  of  the  6,315  men  enlisted  from  Illi- 
nois. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


TWENTY   YEARS'   PROGRESS. 

(1840-1860.) 

Chicago  a  Squalid  Town.  To  the  young  per- 
son of  today,  who  is  accustomed  to  see  the  af- 
fairs of  even  small  towns  and  villages  well  or- 
dered, it  is  hard  to  realize  that 
Chicago's  physical  condition  re- 
mained almost  as  primitive  as  a 
disorderly  barnyard,  long  after  it 
had  become  the  metropolis  of  the 
Northwest. 

This  was  due,  in  part,  to  its  lo- 
cation  on   a   marshy  plain  which 
defied    all    ordinary    methods    of 
drainage     and     paving.       Health 
laws    and    practical    engineering 
A  FIRE  BUCKET,  were  much  less  understood  than 
they    are    today.     The    idea,   too, 
that  the  good  of  one,  in  civic  affairs,  is  the  good 
of  all,  had  scarcely  been  heard  of. 

Here  in  Chicago,  where  growth  of  every  sort 
has  been  so  rapid,  the  people  would,  undoubtedly, 
have  come  around  to  this  view  earlier,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  disastrous  financial  panic  of  1837. 
To  talk  of  borrowing  money  in  the  forties  for 
civic  improvements,  would  have  been  like  wav- 
ing a  red  rag  at  a  bull. 

There  had  been  so  much 
public  and  private  dishonesty 
and  self-seeking  all  over  the 
land,  in  boom  days,  that  every 
movement  forward  was  eyed 
suspiciously.  The  building  of 
the  Galena  and  Chicago  Union 
railroad  had  been  all  but  made 
impossible  by  this  feeling. 
Each  division  of  the  city  was 
jealous  of  the  other.  The  West 
side  naturally  wanted  to  keep 
the  trade  of  the  few  farmers 
on  the  prairies  to  the  west, 
and  opposed  the  construction 
of  bridges  across  the  South 
branch.  Farmers  from  the 
Wabash  river  and  the  south 
could  reach  South  Water  and 
Lake  streets  without  a  bridge. 
The  merchants  on  the  south 
bank,  therefore,  viewed  with  complacency  the 
distress  of  North  side  warehouse  men  after  the 
Dearborn  street  drawbridge  was  cut  down.  North 


side  business  men  were  compelled  to  raise  $3,000 
by  subscription  among  themselves  to  build  the 
first  floating  swing  bridge  at  Clark  street,  in 
1840. 

Governor  Bross,  in  his  reminiscences,  de- 
scribes this  as  a  pontoon  or  raft  bridge,  resting 
on  the  water,  and  operated  by  chains  wound 
on  a  capstan  on  the  float  end.  As  the  level  of 
the  town  was  only  about  two  feet  above  the 
water,  such  a  bridge  was  easily  reached  by  a 
few  steps  leading  down.  By  1845  there  were 
similar  bridges  at  Kinzie,  Randolph  and  Wells. 
They  were  described  as  dangerous  nuisances, 
and  were  execrated  alike  by  townsmen  and  ves- 
sel crews.  The  banks  at  either  end  were  mud 
holes.  North  side  society  continued  to  use  the 
' '  parlor-car  ferry ' '  operated  by  ' '  Old  Bill ' '  at 
Rush  street;  for  this  old  salt,  from  Uncle  Sam's 
navy,  had  built  neat,  planked  approaches  to  the 
river  and  kept  his  decks  swabbed  and  ropes 
coiled. 

The  earliest  settlers  of  Chicago  dug  wells; 
but  iu  boom  days  there  was  such  a  large  floating 
population  that  water  carts,  which  brought  up 
water  from  the  lake  in  hogsheads,  did  a  thriving 


CHICAGO   IN    1853. 

trade.  This  gave  Chicagoans  the  idea  that  it 
was  foolish  for  each  householder  to  dig  his  own 
well,  when  the  town  had  a  reservoir  four  hundred 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


miles  long  at  its  feet.  The  Chicago  Hydraulic 
Company,  a  private  corporation,  was  formed 
and  built  two  reservoirs,  eighty  feet  above 
ground,  at  Michigan  avenue  and  Lake  street. 
A  twenty-five  horsepower  pump  was  connected 
with  an  iron  pipe  that  was  run  out  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  into  the  lake  on  wooden  crib  work. 
Ihe  surplus  power  was  used  to  turn  the  ma- 
chinery of  a  flour  mill.  The  water  was  dis- 
tributed to  the  South  and  a  portion  of  the  West 
side  through  bored  logs.  As  there  was  no  pro- 
vision against  the  entrance  of  solid  matter  into 
the  pipes,  sand,  weeds,  and  minnows  swam 
gaily  out  at  the  faucets.  This  primitive  system 
had  to  content  Chicago  until  1857,  when  the 
first  city  waterworks  was  built  at  Chicago 
avenue. 

One  of  the  strongest  inducements  for  early 
settlers  to  come  into  the  Northwest  territory 
was  the  liberal  reservation  of  public  lands  for 
school  purposes.  More  than  half  a  century  had 
gone  by  since  1787,  when  this  provision  for  pub- 
lic education  was  made  in  the  Northwest  terri- 
tory, but  public  schools  were  still  practically- 
unknown.  The  school  lands  had  little  value  until 
the  country  was  well  settled.  In  the  fifties 
land  in  the  Illinois  Central  grant  brought  only 
five  dollars  an  acre. 

Chicago's  First  Schools,  In 
1843  the  school  trustees  of  Chi- 
cago had  to  report  that  the 
$38,000  for  which  the  school 
block  in  Chicago  had  been  sold 
in  1835,  had  been  reduced  near- 
ly one-half  through  injudicious 
loans  made  in  boom  days.  Un- 
til 1845  Chicago  built  no  struc- 
ture specifically  for  school  pur- 
poses, although  it  owned  the 
two-story  frame  cottage  known 
as  the  Eumsey  school  on  the 
corner  of  Dearborn  and  Madi- 
son, where  the  Tribune  building 
stands  today  on  land  leased 
from  the  school  board. 

Schools    had    been    held    in 
cabins,       storerooms,       private 
houses,    the    Temple    buildings, 
churches,    and   in   the   barracks 
of  the  fort  after  its  evacuation. 
They    were    in    session    pretty 
much  all  the  year  with  the  ex- 
ception  of   two   weeks'   vacation  in  mid-summer. 
Wednesday    and    Saturday    afternoons   were   half- 
holidays.     With  a  fund  of  less  than  $20,000  the 
income  of  the  trustees  was  small,  and  the  schools 
were  supported,  in  the  main,  by  subscription. 

In  1845  the  funds  must  have  been  materially 
increased  for  the  city  built  a  $7,500  brick  school- 
house  on  Madison  street  opposite  where  Mc- 
Vicker's  theater  stands  today.  Within  three 
years  864  pupils  were  enrolled  at  this  school 
and  the  Jones,  Scammon,  and  Haven  schools 


had  been  built,  for  Chicago  suddenly  ran  up  to 
20,000  population.  In  1857  there  were  ten  school 
buildings  with  10,636  pupils,  beside  the  high 
school  on  Monroe  street,  and  numerous  private 
and  church  schools. 

There  were  two  things  the  Chicago  school- 
boys of  the  forties  could  not  resist,  the  sight  of 
a  prairie  schooner  from  the  Wabash,  with  a  load 
of  juicy  apples  or  peaches,  and  the  cry  of 
' '  fire ! ' '  Fruit  was  scarce,  and  a  fire  was  a 
dramatic  entertainment  in  days  when  a  circus 
was  an  event  of  a  lifetime. 

In  the  early  days  of  Chicago's  municipal  his- 
tory, lack  of  money  in  the  fire  department  was 
made  up  for  in  zeal,  and  glory  was  the  pay  of 
the  volunteer  fire-fighters.  To  fight  fires  was  a 
patriotic  duty,  and  a  paid  force  would  have  been 
looked  upon  as  ' '  Hessians ' '  were  in  the  Revo- 
lution. There  were  bucket  brigades,  and  engine 
and  ladder  companies  with  fanciful  names  and 
uniforms.  Rivalry  was  keen  and  often  bitter, 
certain  favored  companies  being  cheered  when 
they  appeared  on  the  street. 

Small  Boy  Furnished  Fire  Alarm.  You  may 
see  today,  in  the  Historical  society's  building 
on  Dearborn  avenue,  an  old  leather  fire-bucket 
with  a  leather  strap  buckled  on  for  a  handle, 


THE  RUMSEY  SCHOOL,  1844. 
(Copyright,  F.  H.  Revell  Co.) 

such  as  the  "Neptunes"  used  so  effectively  as 
late  as  1845.  When  a  fire  started  some  boy 
would  ' '  raise  a  yell, "  as  an  old  settler  said  to 
the  writer.  This  animated  fire  alarm,  who  seemed 
all  legs  and  lungs,  would  rush  through  the  streets 
shouting  "Fire!  fire!  fire!"  All  the  other  boys 
and  the  dogs  of  the  town  would  soon  be  at  his 
heels.  In  a  moment  a  veritable  pandemonium 
was  created. 

Then     from    every    house     and    store     people 
rushed  into  the  streets.     The  fire  boys  dragged 


67 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


their  engines  from  the  sheds  and  called  upon 
bystanders  to  help  get  them  to  the  scene  of  con- 
flagration. Any  man  so  rash  as  to  refuse  to  be 
turned  ii^o  a  fire-engine  horse,  was  knocked 
down  on  the  spot  and  fined  afterwards.  Hose 
was  coupled  on  and  run  down  to  th«  river  or 
lake;  lamps  were  displayed  in  windows  to  light 
the  way  if  the  fire  happened  to  break  out  at 
night,  and  the  leather  fire  buckets  which,  by  city 
ordinance,  hung  in  every  hallway,  were  thrown 
from  house  doors  to  the  boys,  who  caught  them 
on  the  run. 

In  five  minutes  the  engine  was  on  the  spot, 
with  the  firemen  on  the  brakes  or  pedals,  pump- 
ing up  water  by  man-power.  The  bucket  brigades 
were  lined  up  and  passing  continuous  streams  of 
leather  buckets,  hand  over  hand,  from  the  river 
to  the  men  on  the  roof.  Salvage  bands  were 
busy,  as  the  insurance  companies  complained, 
' '  carrying  out  feather-beds  and  smashing  pianos 
to  save  the  casters."  The  fire  was  put  out,  in 
one  way  or  another,  but  the  unfortunate  family 
usually  sat  amid  a  sad  wreckage  of  household 
goods. 

Buckets  disappeared  about  1850  because  the 
town  had  grown  too  far  back  from  the  water 
supply  to  make  them  longer  effective,  but  the 
man-power  engine  did  not  pass  away  until  1858. 
The  small  boy  was*  superseded  if  not  suppressed 
as  a  fire  alarm  by  the  bell  in  the  steeple  of  the 
Unitarian  church  and  that  by  the  bell  in  the 
cupola  of  the  combined  courthouse  and  city  hall 
in  1852.  Two  disastrous  fires  in  1857  and  1858 
proved  the  inadequacy  of  the  old  system  and  in- 
surance companies  raised  the  rates  on  risks  in 


THE  "LONG  JOHN"  FIRE  ENGINE. 

Chicago.  The  "Long  John"  steam  fire-engine 
was  purchased  and  D.  J.  Sweenie,  our  famous 
fire-fighter  Chief  Sweenie,  was  given  charge. 

Chicago  Changes  With  Changing  Times.  Many 
important  changes  in  Chicago  date  from  1848 
and  1849.  The  conditions  of  trade  were  altered 
by  the  opening  of  the  canal  and  the  completion 
of  the  first  ten  miles  of  the  Galena  road.  The 
gold,  or  "yellow"  fever,  as  it  was  facetiously 
called,  swept  the  country,  and  "forty-niners" 
on  the  way  to  California,  outfitted  at  Chicago, 


buying  wagons,  harness,  saddles,  blankets,  cloth« 
ing,  tools,  and  such  foods  as  could  be  preserved 
during  the'  long  march  across  the  ' '  Great  Amer- 
ican Desert ' '  and  the  Bocky  mountains. 


GEO.     M.     PULLMAN. 


EDWIN     O.     GALE. 


Then  there  was  the  flood  of  forty-nine.  Situ- 
ated on  a  level,  with  the  summit  ridge  ten  miles 
back  and  that  only  fifteen  feet  above  lake  level, 
Chicago  did  not  look  for  a  flood.  The  winter 
of  forty-nine  was  remarkable  for  its  heavy 
snowfalls  which  lay  on  the  ground  until  spring. 
In  February  all  the  rivers  of  the  region  froze 
over.  In  March  came  a  sudden  thaw.  The 
snow  melted  rapidly  and,  with  a  report  like  ar- 
tillery, the  ice  broke  up  in  the  Desplaines  and 
rushed  like  an  avalanche  over  the  South  branch, 
swept  down  stream  and  out  to  the  lake,  carry- 
ing away  canal  boats,  bridges,  wharves,  piling, 
and  grain-laden  vessels  that  had  been  tied  up  at 
the  docks.  A  chaos  of  wreckage  filled  the  main 
river  and  the  bank  along  South  Water  street. 

This  was  a  calamity,  for  spring  trade  was 
about  to  open.  In  the  year  before,  70,000  farm 
wagons  had  come  into  Chicago  with  grain  and 
produce.  As  it  happened,  1848  was  the  banner 
year  for  caravan  trade,  for  the  iron  horse  was 
now  to  come  easily  across  prairies  where  many 
animals  had  toiled  so  long.  But  Chicago  did 
not  realize  that  this  change  was  to  come  so  soon. 
Bridges  were  hastily  rebuilt  after  the  flood,  but 
on  the  improved,  center-pier,  pivot  pattern 
which  is  considered  such  a  cumbrous  nuisance 
today.  But  the  bridges  then  were  only  two  feet 
above  the  water.  Sand  was  hauled  up  from  the 
lake  shore  to  fill  in  the  washed-out  streets,  and 
wrecked  wharves  and  buildings  along  the  water 
front  were  replaced  with  better  ones. 

The  new  courthouse  and  city  hall  set  the 
standard  for  better  buildings.  Governor  Key- 
nolds  described  the  courthouse  as  "a  splendid 
structure,  standing  in  great  majesty  and 
grandeur."  In  the  next  four  years,  1853-7, 
$18,000,000  was  spent  in  building  operations. 
With  so  much  money  going  into  building;  with 
the  second  boom  on;  with  land  values  rising  over 
night  so  that  real  estate  agents  blushed  for  the 
truth  which  outstripped  their  bragging  stories, 
Chicago  began  to  consider  what  could  be  done 
with  her  impossible  streets.  They  not  only  im- 
peded business,  but  they  also  menaced  the  public 
health. 


68 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Chicago's  Paving  Problem.  From  the  begin- 
ning, the  task  of  draining,  grading,  and  paving 
Chicago 's  thoroughfares  had  looked  well-nigh 
hopeless.  Everything  placed  upon  them  sank  a8 
in  a  bottomless  morass.  Fort  Dearborn  had 
stood  on  a  rise,  ten  or  twelve  feet  above  the 
lake  level,  and  a  ridge  of  simalar  elevation  ran 
northward  across  the  Kinzie  tract.  From  Mich- 
igan avenue  the  slope  was  so  abrupt  westward 
that  a  deep  slough  occupied  the  present  line  of 
State  street  as  far  south  as  Adams.  An  uncer- 
tain footbridge  of  logs,  laid  lengthwise,  spanned 
this  slough  at  Lake  street,  and  Mr.  E.  O.  Gale 
says  in  his  "Early  Chicago  Eeminiscences" 
that  the  frogs  of  that  slough  used  to  say:  "Bet- 
ter go  round!  Knee  deep!"  when  venturesome 
citizens  attempted  to  cross  it. 

The  busiest  part  of  Chicago  lay  at  the  lowest 
point  of  the  marshy  plain,  along  the  river  and 
its  branches,  but  two  feet  above  water  level. 
Those  two  feet,  and,  in  many  places  more,  were 
of  black  muck,  or  alluvium,  deposited  by  the 
river,  when  the  lake  receded,  leaving  a  bed  of 
sand.  In  the  spring  and  fall  this  top  dressing 
of  Chicago  was  wet  to  the  point  of  saturation. 
Across  the  prairie,  farm  wagons  sank  to  the 
hubs.  In  many  of  Chicago's  streets,  drays, 
wagons,  and  even  stage-coaches,  might  often  be 
seen  abandoned  in  mud  holes.  An  unfailing 
source  of  amusement  to  local  wits  was  the  stick- 
ing up  of  facetious  signs  labeled  "Man  lost 
here,"  and  "Shortest  route  to  China;  this  hole 
goes  right  through." 

The  sand  bed  and  underlying  hardpan  were 
below  water-level,  and  served  no  purpose  for 
drainage.  Water  was  lost  only  by  evaporation 
from  the  surface.  Everything,  except  water, 
was  held  fast  in  the  reeking  soil.  Sluicing  sim- 
ply carried  waste  matter  into  the  river,  until 
that  stream,  once  so  blue  and  limpid  and  teem- 
ing with  fish,  was  an  open,  stagnant  sewer.  Into 
it  went  the  refuse  of  houses,  hotels,  river  vessels, 
the  markets,  slaughter  houses,  tanneries,  and  the 
thousand  and  one  abominations  that  accumulate 
daily  in  populous  places. 

Temporary  expedients  had  been  resorted  to 
to  improve  the  streets  and  river.  As  early  as 
1836  certain  thoroughfares  were  dug  down  in  the 
middle  and  planked,  forming  two  inclined  planes 
with  a  gutter  in  the  center.  The  planks  were 
soon  broken  by  heavy  teams,  the  boards  and 
water  flew  up  in  horses'  faces,  and  pitfalls  were 
formed  for  pedestrians.  Then  the  streets  were 
graded  like  country  roads,  with  gutters  at  either 
side.  Sand  from  the  shore  was  used  as  a  top 
dressing.  This  was  as  beautiful  and  as  de- 
ceptive as  newly  fallen  snow,  for  the  sand  was 
cut  up  by  the  heavy  traffic  and  disappeared  in 
the  mud. 

As  a  third  expedient  sewers  were  constructed 
of  three  heavy  planks  formed  into  a  triangular 
pipe  and  laid  in  the  middle  of  the  streets  on 
the  surface.  After  filling  in  around  these  the 


streets  were  planked.  This  plan  gave  the  sew- 
ers a  fall  of  two  feet  into  the  river,  and  much 
confidence  was  felt  in  it.  But  that  confidence 
was  misplaced  for,  as  the  "Gem  of  the  Prairie" 
says  in  an  issue  of  1850:  "Water  accumulates 
under  this  planking  and  in  summer  steams  up 
through  every  crack  and  seam  of  the  rotting 
boards  and  poisons  the  town."  Every  summer 
brought  its  cholera  and  every  winter  its  small- 
pox scare.  Cobblestone  fared  no  better — the 
stones  -were  forced  down  to  hardpan  by  the 
traffic  and  simply  swallowed  up  in  the  mud. 

A  Solution  Found.  Two  things  now  happened 
which  gave  people  an  idea  as  to  a  real  solution 
of  the  problem.  The  board  of  Cook  county  com- 
missioners spent  $100,000  in  draining  swamp 
lands  around  the  city.  This  work  covered  terri- 
tory extending  four  miles  to  the  west,  five  to  the 
north,  and  ten  to  the  south,  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  city.  Drainage  was  carried  into  the  Chi- 
cago and  Calumet  rivers.  The  benefit  to  the  city 
was  felt  immediately — there  were  a  few  dry 
cellars  in  town. 

It  began  to  dawn  on  Chicago  that,  to  have  a 
dry,  clean,  and  healthy  city,  the  level  must  be 
raised  to  a  height  that  would  permit  proper 
drainage.  It  took  a  courageous  man  to  be  the 
first  to  propose  such  a  thing,  for  the  difficulties 
and  expense  were  appalling.  E.  S.  Cheese- 
brough,  chief  engineer  of  the  newly  created 
sewerage  commission,  was  the  man.  As  all  other 
schemes  had  been  tried  and  found  wanting,  Chi- 
cago had  to  face  the  cost  and  the  difficulties  of 
pulling  itself  up  out  of  the  mud. 

A  fourteen-foot  level,  or  a  total  of  twelve 
feet  to  be  filled  in  was  ordered.  Property  owners 
were  aroused.  Owners  of  large  brick  blocks 
saw  the  streets  rising  around  them,  and  their 
first  floors  changed  to  sub-basements.  The  courts 
sustained  the  order  of  the  city  council.  The 
Chicago  Tribune  of  April  9,  1857,  said  dole- 
fully: 

"Every  house  now  standing  in  Chicago  must 
be  raised  about  the  height  of  the  mayor.  (Long 
John  Wentworth,  measuring  6  feet  7  inches,  was 
mayor  at  the  time.)  It  is  going  to  be  something 
of  a  job  to  raise  1,200  acres  to  grade,  and  where 
are  the  millions  of  cubic  yards  of  earth  to  come 
from?" 

Where  do  you  suppose  it  came  from?  For 
the  streets  and  sloughs  from  the  bed  of  the  river; 
for  private  lots  from  excavations — made  for 
houses,  for  Chicago's  business  section  was  built 
over  pretty  solidly  as  fast  .as  it  grew,  and  there 
was  not,  after  all,  very  much  of  vacant  space 
to  be  filled  in.  And  where  was  the  power  to 
come  from  that  was  to  raise  the  big,  four-story 
brick  blocks  in  the  business  district?  Well,  that 
came  from  New  York  state  in  the  shape  of  a 
young  man  of  ideas. 

The  Opportunity  and  the  Man.  The  Tremont 
house,  a  four-story  structure  of  brick  and  stone, 
was  one  of  the  skyscrapers  of  Chicago  in  the 


69 


THE  STOKY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


fifties.  As  Lake  and  Clark  streets  began  to 
climb  up,  as  a  result  of  the  grading,  the  pro- 
prietors of  this  hotel  simply  built  steps  leading 
down  from  the  street  to  the  office  and  dining- 
room.  Visitors  from  the  East  got  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Tremont  House  had  sunk  of  its  own 
weight,  and  went  back  home  to  tell  how  Chicago 
was  built  on  a  bottomless  morass. 

But  one  day  there  was  a  guest  from  New 
York  who  asked  for  the  job  of  raising  the  build- 
ing. 

"How  do  we  know  you  can  do  it?"  asked 
the  skeptical  proprietors. 

' '  Well,  I  've  raised  some  buildings  along  the 
line  of  the  Erie  canal.  I  can  raise  anything  if 
I  can  get  enough  jackscrews  under  it.  I  guess 
about  5,000  would  do  this  job." 

"You'll  wreck  the  building." 

"I'll  agree  to  pay  for  every  pane  of  glass  I 
break. ' ' 

"It'll  ruin  the  house,  anyhow.  The  guests 
will  be  scared  to  death." 

"They  won't  miss  a  meal  or  a  wink  of  sleep." 

"All  right,  go  ahead.    "What's  your  name?" 

"George  M.  Pullman." 

There,  doesn't  that  thrill  you?  But  the  names 
so  famous  now  didn't  thrill  any  one  then. 
George  M.  Pullman  began,  on  that  job,  to  make 
his  name. 

He  first  covered  the  basement  floor  of  the 
hotel  with  heavy  timbers.  On  these  he  set 
up  his  5,000  jackscrews.  Then  he  turned  in 
1,250  men,  one  to  each  set  of  four  screws.  At 
a  signal  the  screws  were  given  a  half  turn.  The 
building  parted  from  its  foundations.  Inch  by 
inch  it  rose  in  the  air,  and  the  foundation  was 
built  up  as  fast  as  it  rose,  the  business  of  the 
hotel  going  on  undisturbed.  The  story  of  this 
unheard-of  feat  of  engineering  spread  Chicago's 
fame  abroad.  Eastern  newspapers  told  how  the 
young  giant  of  the  West  was  "pulling  itself 
up  by  the  boot  straps." 

Chicago  Gets  City  Conveniences.  The  water- 
works at  Chicago  avenue  were  completed  in 
1857,  and  water  and  gas  pipes  and  sewers  were 
laid.  Macadam  and  wooden  blocks  took  the 
place  of  planks  and  cobblestones,  and  stone 
sidewalks  began  to  replace  board  walks.  Horse 
cars  were  run  out  on  State  street  to  Twenty- 
second,  on  Madison,  and  on  North  Clark.  Sub- 
urban trains  were  run  out  to  the  village  of  Hyde 
Park,  and  omnibuses  met  the  trains.  The  ceme- 
tery on  Lincoln  park  site  was  away  out  of  town. 
At  Oakland,  then  called  Cleaversville,  was  a 
factory,  a  slaughter  house,  and  six  dwelling 
houses,  in  1857,  on  a  part  of  the  old  Ellis  farm. 

Six  years  before,  Mr.  Charles  Cleaver,  a  soap 
and  candle-maker,  drove  out  to  the  Ellis  place, 
which  lay  between  Thirty-fifth  and  Thirty-ninth 
streets,  on  the  lake  shore,  and  bought  a  tract  of 
twenty  acres,  on  which  to  build  a  factory.  After 
leaving  the  Illinois  Central  depot  at  Michigan 
avenue  and  Twelfth  street,  he  passed  but  two 


houses  until  he  reached  the  Cottage  in  the  Grove, 
a  popular  resort  on  Graves'  farm  at  Thirty-first 
street,  from  which  ' '  Cottage  Grove ' '  avenue 
gets  its  name.  On  Lake  and  Thirty-fifth  was 
the  Ellis  tavern,  the  first  station  out,  in  stage- 
coach days,  on  the  road  to  Detroit. 

How  Mr.  Cleaver  got  the  brick  and  stone  and 
lumber  out  to  Thirty-ninth  street,  to  build  his 
factory,  is  an  interesting  story  in  itself.  The 
brick  kiln  was  on  the  West  side,  about  Twen- 
tieth street.  He  ferried  the  bricks  over  the 
South  branch  on  a  scow,  and  then  had  to  build 
a  mile  of  plank  road  across  the  sand  ridge,  and 
a  150-foot  bridge  over  the  slough  that  ran  past 
the  old  Chicago  University  block.  The  heavy 
timbers  were  loaded  on  a  scow  and  towed  around 
the  lake  shore  by  horses.  His  workingmen's 
cottages  were  mounted,  each  on  two  canal  boats, 
lashed  together  with  chains,  and  towed  from 
above  Chicago  avenue.  Thus  was  Cleaverville 
— now  Oakland — begun;  and  under  conditions  as 
difficult  all  the  suburban  towns  about  Chicago 
were  started,  many  of  which  have  been  since 
absorbed  into  the  city. 

Chicago's  Trade  Changes  and  Expands.  It 
was  in  the  fifties  that  Chicago  came  into  her 
heritage  of  trade.  For  a  year  or  two  after  the 
opening  of  the  canal,  and  the  first  section  of  the 
Galena  road,  the  merchants  of  Chicago  were  in  a 
panic  over  the  falling  off  of  the  retail  trade 
of  the  farmers.  Fewer  caravans  came  to  town 
with  every  mile  of  railroad  that  was  completed. 
The  streets  had  a  deserted  look  and  the  stores 
fewer  customers. 

But  did  Chicago  have  less  trade?  Let  us  see. 
Along  the  canal  and  the  Illinois  river,  and  along 
all  the  railway  lines,  country  towns  sprang  up. 
Each  had  its  dry  goods,  grocery,  and  hardware 
stores,  its  shoe  and  blacksmith  shops,  and  per- 
haps its  flour  mill.  To  these  points  farmers 
brought  their  grain  to  be  ground  or  shipped, 
bought  the  supplies  they  needed,  and  went  back 
home.  With  a  market  only  a  few  miles  from 
his  fields,  the  farmer  raised  more  grain  and  live 
stock  and  began  to  plant  orchards  and  to  keep 
milch  cows  and  poultry. 

Where  a  hundred  farmers  used  to  come  to 
Chicago  to  buy  in  a  retail  way,  their  purchases 
limited  by  the  profits  of  a  wagon  load  of  wheat, 
there  now  came  one  or  two  country  merchants  to 
lay  in  stocks  of  goods  for  the  country  trade. 
Wheat  came  to  Chicago  by  the  car  load  instead 
of  the  wagon  load,  and  elevators  displaced  ware- 
houses. No  more  drovers  were  seen,  but  every 
railroad  had  its  stockyards  for  the  unloading 
and  sale  of  cattle  and  hogs.  Within  five  years 
Chicago  was  transformed  from  a  retail  to  a 
wholesale  town — it  became  the  sales  center  be- 
tween the  factories  of  the  East  and  the  farms 
of  the  Northwest. 

The  trade  territory  of  Chicago  constantly  ex- 
panded. Like  giant  feelers  after  trade,  the  iron 
tracks  were  thrown  out  over  the  prairies.  Each 


70 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


mile  of  rails  caused  the  farms  to  multiply.  There 
were  remote  settlements  on  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  Mississippi,  waiting  only  for  the  shriek  of 
the  locomotive  to  awaken  them  to  civic  life,  and 
to  draw  them  within  the  circumference  of  Chi- 
cago 's  trade.  Iowa  was  admitted  to  the  Union 
in  1846,  Wisconsin  in  1848,  and  Minnesota  in 
1858.  All  of  these  paid  increasing  tribute  to 
Chicago,  sending  her  their  grain,  cattle,  and 
lumber,  buying  her  manufactures  and  imports. 

St.  Louis  was  the  metropolis  of  the  middle 
Mississippi,  with  its  outlet  at  New  Orleans. 
The  territory  of  Chicago  was  clearly  the  North- 
west. The  next  state  to  be  added  to  her  trade 
must  be  Nebraska.  But  Nebraska  was  not  ad- 
mitted to  the  Union  until  1867,  eighteen  years 
after  California. 

Progress  Stopped  by  Civil  War.  Railroad 
building,  commercial  expansion,  and  emigration 
were  brought  to  a  standstill,  late  in  the  fifties, 
by  the  financial  panic  which  preceded  the  Civil 
war. 

By  1850  the  division  between  the  North  and 
South  had  become  bitter  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion. It  seemed  as  if  every  event  fanned  the 
flame — the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  and 
the  adoption  by  that  state  of  a  free-soil  consti- 


tution; the  appearance  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  "Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin;"  the  bloody  fight  between  pro- 
slavery  and  free-soil  men  in  Kansas,  and  John 
Brown's  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry  in  1859. 

In  1855  Senator  Douglas  of  Illinois  introduced 
his  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  by  which  those  two 
territories,  when  admitted  as  states,  were  to  set- 
tle for  themselves  whether  they  should  permit 
slavery.  This  bill  was  opposed  by  every  northern 
Whig  and  by  many  northern  Democrats. 

Senator  Douglas,  the  "Little  Giant,"  was  the 
most  brilliant  figure  in  national  political  life 
since  Jackson.  Winning  in  personality,  fearless, 
magnetic,  a  born  orator,  a  shrewd  politician,  he 
had  easily  won  every  political  honor  to  which 


he  had  aspired.  His  nomination  by  the  Demo- 
cratic party  and  his  election  to  the  presidency 
in  1860,  were  looked  upon  as  certain.  His  most 
difficult  problem  faced  him  now  to  satisfy  the 
Democrats  of  the  South  who  were  fighting  for  the 
extension  of  slavery,  and  the  Democrats  of  the 
North  who  defended  slavery  where  it  existed,  but 
were  opposed  to  its  extension. 

Up  to  this  time  the  newspapers  of  Chicago 
can  not  be  said  to  have  figured  actively  in  na- 
tional issues.  But  now,  not  only  did  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  then  the  most  ably  edited  and  success- 
ful paper  in  the  West,  denounce  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill,  but  the  Journal  ant1,  the  Staats- 
Zeitung  did  so,  too;  and  Mr.  Wentworth's  Chi- 
cago Democrat,  a  rock-ribbed  Jackson  organ 
for  twenty  years,  ranged  itself  with  the  free- 
soil  Whigs.  Senator  Douglas  suddenly  found  him- 
self with  only  one  defender  in  the  press  of  his 
home  city,  and  that  was  the  Times. 

Abraham  Lincoln  Becomes  National  Figure. 
Douglas  soon  won  a  hearing  by  his  persuasive 
eloquence.  But  his  way  was  strewn  with  pit- 
falls. He  no  longer  voiced  the  thoughts  of  the 
people  he  represented. 

When  Douglas  went  down  to  Springfield  to 
speak,  a  long,  lean,  melancholy  looking  lawyer, 
who  had  been  in  the  State 
Legislature  and  in  Congress, 
who  was  then  near  48  and 
somewhat  of  a  failure  in 
political  life,  strolled  out  to 
the  state  fair  grounds  to  hear 
the  celebrated  orator.  As  he 
listened  a  kind  of  fire  burned 
in  his  cavernous  eyes  as  if  he 
would  pierce  through  that  glit- 
tering flood  of  words  to  some 
homely,  fixed  truth  behind 
them. 

The  next  day  a  reply  was 
made  to  Douglas's  speech — a 
reply  that  awoke  the  Republi- 
cans of  Illinois,  not  yet  crys- 
tallized into  an  organization, 
to  the  fact  that  they  had  a 
leader. 

The  leader  was  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

The  Republican  party  of  Illinois  was  organ- 
ized in  February  of  1856.  At  the  state  conven- 
tion held  in  May,  Lincoln  spoke  again.  Of  this 
speech,  Joseph  Medill,  who  was  present  as  a 
delegate,  and  also  as  the  representative  of  his 
paper,  the  Chicago  Tribune,  says: 

"I  took  down  a  few  paragraphs  of  Lincoln's 
speech  for  the  first  ten  minutes,  but  I  became  so 
absorbed  in  his  magnificent  oratory  that  I  forgot 
myself  and  ceased  to  take  notes,  but  joined  in 
the  clapping  and  cheering  and  stamping  to  the 
end.  I  was  not  scooped,  however,  for  all  the 
newspaper  men  present  had  been  equally  carried 
away  by  the  excitement  and  had  made  no  re- 
port. ' ' 


71 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Lincoln's  "Lost  Speech"  made  him  famous. 
Illinois  in  that  year  elected  a  Eepublican  gov- 
ernor, and  Abraham  Lincoln  was  spoken  of  as 
the  successor  of  Douglas  when  his  second  term 
in  the  senate  should  expire. 

There  Was  No  General  National  Banking  Law. 
Each  state  had  its  own  system.  In  nearly  all 
cases  the  bank  notes  issued  by  the  states  were 
redeemable  in  gold  or  silver,  and  they  circulated 
freely  throughout  the  country.  Large  quantities 
of  the  bank  notes  of  the  Southern  states  were 
in  circulation  in  the  North.  Should  the  Southern 
states  secede  from  the  Union  these  notes  would 
be  repudiated.  The  financial  sky  was  darkened 
by  fear  of  war,  and  foreign  capitalists,  espe- 
cially, were  prone  to  think  that  when  the  storm 
broke  it  would  disrupt  the  Union.  Until  1857 
desperate  efforts  were  made  by  business  men 
to  keep  on  their  feet,  but  in  September  the  panic 
came.  In  the  United  States  and  Canada  5,123 
firms  failed  within  a  short  period,  with  liabilities 
up  to  $300,000,000.  Every  bank  in  New  York 
suspended  payments  and  only  a  few  in  Chicago 
stood  firm. 


STATUE    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    IN    LINCOLN     PARK, 
CHICAGO. 

The  money  in  circulation,  as  in  1837,  was  dis- 
credited; and  with  bank  notes  falling  gold  and 
silver  disappeared.  In  1858  there  was  a  partial 
failure  of  crops,  making  times  still  harder.  It 
was  just  at  this  juncture  that  interest  in  the 
slavery  question  was  keenest.  Conditions  of 
business  had  become  intolerable  and  they  were 
not  to  be  improved  while  disruption  of  the 
Union  remained  an  ever  present  danger. 


The  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates.  It  was  these 
facts  which  gave  to  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates 
their  national  importance.  The  country  was 
frantic  for  some  solution  of  the  questions  that 
were  to  plunge  the  nation  into  civil  war.  Every- 
body was  seeking  light.  When,  therefore,  "Lin- 
coln challenged  Senator  Douglas  to  joint  debate 
on  the  slavery  question  he  could  not  well  refuse. 
Between  August  15  and  October  21,  1858,  the 
two  spoke  at  various  points  throughout  Illinois, 
and  the  speeches  were  widely  reported. 

To  Senator  .Douglas  the  debates  were  made 
the  occasion  of  a  triumphal  tour  of  the  state.  He 
had  special  cars,  whole  cabins  on  river  steamers, 
and  the  best  carriages  for  himself,  his  wife,  and 
a  party  of  distinguished  Democrats  who  accom- 
panied him.  Lincoln  rode  on  accommodation  or 
freight  trains,  on  horseback,  in  farm  wagons, 
and  on  flatboats.  But  he  was  always  on  time 
and  he  got  his  share  of  the  "fizzle-wigs,"  as  he 
called  bands  and  torchlight  processions. 

Douglas  was  trapped  and  cornered  at  every 
turn.  He  employed  trickery  for  which  he  was 
condemned  by  his  own  friends  and  party.  Illi- 
nois woke  up  to  the  amazing  fact  that  it  had 
exchanged  its  "Little  Giant"  for  "Honest 
Abe,"  the  Giant  Killer. 

It  was  in  "Long  John"  Wentworth's  Chi- 
cago Democrat  that  Lincoln 's  name  was  first  sug- 
gested in  Chicago  (1858)  for  the  presidency, 
although  the  campaign  had  been  opened  in  a 
Rock  Island  paper  by  agreement  made  among 
editors  of  the  state  in  the  office  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune.  It  was  not  until  February,  1860,  how- 
ever, that  the  Tribune  came  out  for  Lincoln,  and 
even  then  William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York, 
was  the  most  prominent  candidate  for  the  Re- 
publican nomination. 

A  Chicago  man,  Mr.  Norman  B.  Judd,  hap- 
pened to  be  a  member  of  the  Republican  na- 
tional committee.  He  succeeded  in  having  Chi- 
cago selected  for  the  national  convention.  This, 
together  with  the  fact  that  Illinois  was  now  a 
strong  Republican  state  and  certain  to  again 
elect  a  Republican  governor,  gave  Lincoln  a 
tremendous  advantage.  Eastern  men  began  to 
talk  of  giving  him  second  place  on  the  ticket 
with  Seward. 

But  Illinois  refused  to  hear  of  anything  but 
first  place  for  Lincoln.  Lincoln  pictures,  Lincoln 
stories  were  sent  all  over  the  country.  The 
famous  Lincoln  rails  appeared  in  the  campaign. 
Western  states,  whose  rail-splitting  days  were 
by  no  means  over,  began  to  fall  into  line  for 

this  pioneer  candidate. 

\ 


72 


CHAPTEE  X. 


CHICAGO  IN  WAR  DAYS. 
(1860-1870.) 

The  Republican  National  Convention.  In  May, 
1860,  while  the  Republican  national  convention 
was  in  session,  the  eyes  of  the  entire  country 
were,  for  the  first  time,  focused  on  Chicago. 

The  Democratic  party  had  split  into  two 
bodies.  The  Southern  states  rejected  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  because  of  certain  admissions  he  had 
made  in  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates,  and  nom- 
inated Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  for  the  presi- 
dency. Northern  Democrats  bolted  the  conven- 
tion at  Charleston  and  nominated  Douglas.  With 
two  Democratic  candidates  in  the  field,  the 
chances  for  Republican  success  were  enormously 
increased.  As  this  state  of  affairs  had  been 
brought  about  by  Lincoln 's  shrewdness  and  elo- 
quence, Chicago  and  the  West  became  more  than 
ever  determined  that  Lincoln  should  have  first 
place  on  the  Republican  ticket. 

In  the  demoralized  condition  in  which  Chi- 
cago was,  in  1860,  no  Eastern  city  would  have 


THE    WIGWAM     WHERE    LINCOLN    WAS     NOMINATED. 

invited  a  convention.  With  109,000  population 
and  ten  railroads,  the  raw,  young  city  had  only 
begun  to  pull  itself  out  of  the  mud.  Half  the 
streets  were  up  to  the  grade  of  fourteen  feet,  the 
rest  were  down  to  nearly  lake  level.  Half  the 
buildings  stood  about  on  stilts,  looking  like 
cranes  in  a  marsh.  Many  sidewalks  reeled  along 
on  rotting  piles.  But  Rome  was  not  built  in  a 
day,  and  Chicago  felt  no  shame  to  be  caught  in 
the  act  of  growing.  On  Michigan  avenue  were 
to  be  seen  the  beginnings  of  a  magnificent  boule- 
vard. There  were  no  parks  as  yet,  but  horse- 
cars,  gas,  running  water,  and  daily  papers  with 
telegraphic  dispatches,  were  things  to  speak  of 
with  pride.  Though  hard  times  had  become 
chronic,  and  bad  crops,  a  coming  election,  and 


war  clouds  darkened  the  business  horizon,  every- 
body was  amazingly  busy,  happy,  energetic,  and 
boastful.  There  was  a  rousing  Chicago  welcome 
for  the  40,000  strangers  who  invaded  the  city. 

The  Wigwam  was  a  mere  wooden  shed,  180 
feet  by  100  feet,  with  wooden  galleries.  But  the 
barn-like  interior  had  been  draped  with  miles 
of  bunting  and  the  platform  banked  with  flow- 
ers. A  cannon  had  been  mounted  on  the  top  to 
announce  the  nomination  of  Lincoln.  Chicago 
had  grown  up  in  such  gay  makeshifts  and  gave 
not  a  thought  to  the  flimsiness  of  the  structure 
in  which  such  a  historic  deed  was  to  be  done. 

On  nomination  day  20,000  of  the  common  peo- 
ple of  the  West,  who  were  giving  up  a  week 
from  tottering  business  to  shout  themselves 
hoarse  for  Lincoln,  packed  themselves  into  the 
Wigwam  and  occupied  every  seat  not  reserved 
for  delegates.  The  Seward  crowd  from  New 
York  was  marching  the  streets  with  noisy  dem- 
onstrations until  the  last  moment. 

Lincoln  Nominated  for  the  Presidency.  On  the 
first  ballot  Lincoln  got  only  102  votes  out  of  465. 
Seward  was  in  the  lead.  On  the  second,  Lincoln 
gained  67  votes  and  Seward  less  than  a  dozen. 
On  the  third  there  was  a  stampede  to  the  West- 
ern candidate,  Lincoln  polling  231%,  with  233 
necessary  to  choice.  There  was  a  breathless 
moment,  then  Ohio  came  over  from  Chase  to 
Lincoln.  William  M.  Evarts  of  New  York 
moved  that  the  nomination  be  made  unanimous. 
The  teller  waved  his  tally  sheet  in  the  air  but 
no  one  heard  the  name  he  announced,  for  the 
West  let  out  a  shout  which  recalled  the  war- 
whoop  of  the  Pottawatomies. 

At  the  same  instant  the  gunner  on  top  of  the 
Wigwam  fired  his  cannon.  The  explosion  threat- 
ened to  demolish  the  building,  but  its  echoes 
were  drowned  in  the  whoops  and  yells  from 
solid  acres  of  voters  in  the  street.  Then  one 
hundred  guns  were  fired  from  the  roof  of  the 
Tremont  House,  Lincoln's  headquarters,  steam- 
boats, locomotives  and  factories  opened  their 
whistles,  and  every  bell  in  town  joined  in  the 
jubilee.  The  day  and  night  were  given  up  to 
wild  merry-making. 

From  that  time  until  November,  Chicago  was 
in  the  hottest  of  the  campaign.  But  men  grew 
sober  as  the  election  approached.  Lincoln  was 
to  be  elected,  as  you  know,  but  in  fifteen  states 
he  was  not  to  get  an  electoral  vote  and,  in  ten, 
not  a  popular  vote.  In  South  Carolina  the  leg- 
islature was  in  special  session  with  the  avowed 
intention  of  seceding  from  the  Union  should 
Lincoln  be  elected. 


73 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


In  December  South  Carolina  set  up  an  inde- 
pendent government  as  a  sovereign  state.  By 
February  1  the  entire  line  of  Gulf  states  had 
proclaimed  secession,  the  Confederate  States  of 
America  had  been  organized,  Jefferson  Davis 
elected  president,  and  customs  duties  were  being 
collected  by  the  Confederacy  in  Charleston,  Sa- 
vannah, Mobile,  New  Orleans,  and  Galveston. 

This  was  the  situation  when  Lincoln  went 
under  guard  to  Washington  and  was  inaugu- 
rated March  4,  1861,  president  of  a  disrupted 
Union,  with  General  Scott  in  command  of  an 
army  of  troops  in  Washington  to  prevent  his 
threatened  assassination.  On  the  13th  of  April 
Fort  Sumter  was  bombarded. 

Beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  A  pall  of  grief 
and  dismay  hung  over  Chicago  as  over  the  en- 
tire country.  It  was  Saturday.  Sunday  lay  be 
tween  the  city  and  action.  And  Sunday  was  one 
of  those  beautiful,  cloudless  spring  days,  warm 
as  June,  with  an  azure  sky  reflected  in  a 
sapphire  lake  and  just  enough  breeze  to  float  Old 
Glory.  By  one  accord  every  bit  of  bunting  was 
hung  out,  a  silent  pledge  of  devotion  to  the 
Union.  Stands  of  colors  were  over  church  doors 
and  altars.  Congregations  sang  "America," 
and  ministers  said:  "It  is  time  to  pray  with 
muskets  to  preserve  the  Union." 

But  Chicago  had  no  definite  idea  of  what  part 
it  could  take  in  the  war.  Even  in  1860,  with 
but  109,000  people,  Chicago  was  a  cosmopolitan 
city.  Work  on  the  western  railroads  in  .the  fif- 


In  an  American  crisis  it  was  uncertain  how 
these  foreign  elements  of  the  population  would 
act.  In  January  the  Germans  sent  a  sword  to 
Major  Anderson,  and  the  Bohemians  and  Hun- 
garians voluntarily  took  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Union  at  a  mass  meeting  in  Metropolitan 
hall.  After  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  all  these 
nationalities  joined  the  Lumbard  brothers, 
famous  campaign  singers,  in  singing  George  F. 
Boot's  new  song,  "The  First  Gun  Is  Fired!  May 
God  Defend  the  Eight. ' '  Later  they  shouldered 
their  muskets  and  marched  to  the  front  with 
native-born  Americans. 

When,  however,  on  Monday,  President  Lin- 
coln called  upon  Governor  Yates  of  Illinois  for 
six  regiments,  not  a  man  in  Chicago  was 
equipped  to  march.  Where,  now,  in  this  crisis, 
were  the  Zouave  Cadets  and  Light  Dragoons,  the 
famous  militia  companies  which,  in  the  late  fif- 
ties, had  dashed  out  of  the  old  armory  at 
Adams  and  Market,  ridden  off  to  tournaments, 
and  come  back  with  prizes!  The  Chicago  Zou- 
aves, which  had  been  drilled  by  that  martinet 
of  twenty-two,  Elmer  Ellsworth,  had  been  the 
finest  military  company  in  the  United  States. 


COL.  MULLIGAN. 


LIEUT.  ELMER  ELLS-  GEN.    BENJAMIN    J.    SWEET. 

WORTH.  CHICAGO  WAE  HEKOES. 


CAPT.  DAVID  P.  BREMNER. 


ties  brought  thousands  of  Irish  emigrants  who 
had  been  driven  from  the  Emerald  Isle  by  the 
great  famine  of  1847.  Germans,  Swedes,  and 
Norwegians  were  pouring  into  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota  to  take  up  the  farming  lands.  Many 
of  these  dropped  out  of  the  migrating  bands  at 
Milwaukee  and  Chicago,  and  there  were  Poles, 
Bohemians,  Hungarians,  and  Greeks,  many  of 
whom  were  political  exiles.  The  Irish  had  al- 
ready pre-empted  "Archey  Eoad, "  Archer  ave- 
nue, and  the  Germans,  the  North  side  west  of 
Clark  street.  The  West  side  had  all  the  tongues 
of  Babel. 


That  company  was  now  disbanded.  Its  old  com- 
mander went  to  Springfield  to  study  law  with 
Lincoln  and  had  formed  one  of  the  President 's 
guard  to  Washington.  On  the  first  call  to  arms 
he  had  gone  to  New  York  city  to  take  com- 
mand of  a  company  of  firemen.  Chicago  had  lost 
Elmer  Ellsworth,  but  his  Zouave  Cadets  were  the 
first  to  be  reorganized  and  to  offer  their  serv- 
ices to  the  country. 

By  the  18th  Chicago's  Quota  Was  Full.  A 
Swedish  company,  organized  too  late  to  be  ac- 
cepted, joined  a  regiment  in  Wisconsin.  The 
Irish  brigade,  a  day  too  late,  fretted  and  fumed 


74 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


because  they  were  declined.  Colonel  Mulligan 
went  in  person  to  Washington.  In  three  days 
he  telegraphed  back:  "Irish  brigade  accepted 
as  an  independent  regiment  for  service  during 
war.  Drill  without  ceasing.  Coining  on  first 
train.  Whoop 'er  up,  boys!" 

That  was  typical  of  the  war  spirit  of  Chicago. 
Within  three  weeks  thirty-eight  companies,  num- 


_j     Thlrt^Flnrt 


n 


DIAGRAM    OF    GROUND    OCCUPIED    BY    CAMP    DOUGLAS. 

bering  3,500  men,  were  ready  for  the  field,  and 
Chicago  banks  had  offered  Governor  Yates  $500,- 
000  pending  the  meeting  of  the  legislature.  Thir- 
teen companies  had  gone  to  Cairo  to  protect  the 
frontier  of  Illinois  from  Kentucky  and  Mis- 
souri. 

The  Irish  brigade  was  recruiting  and  drilling 
in  Kent's  brewery.  Every  member  of  it  was  an 
old  soldier  and  bore  the  scars  of  battle  won  in 
foreign  wars.  Many  incidents  of  the  swearing 

in    of  this    famous    body    of 

troops    have    become    historic. 

One  man  who  presented  himself 

had    lost   two   fingers    and   was 

about  to  be  rejected. 

"If  I  lost  me  arrums  I  could 

pull  a  trigger  wid  me  toes,"  he 

declared. 

One  had  a  broken  collar  bone 

but  was  accepted  as  soon  as  he 

got  out  of  the  hospital.     There 

were   men   who    had    fought   in 

Greece,    Italy,    and    India,    and 

against     the     Indians     on     the 

Western  plains.    Lieutenant  Cos- 
grove  wore  a  medal  won  in  the 

Crimea.    He  was  saluted  by  the 

recruiting     officer     and    passed 

without  a  question.     The  Irish 

brigade    became    famous    even 

before   it   won   new   distinction 

in   Missouri  under  Fremont. 
Before  any  fighting  at  all  had  been  done  by 

Chicago  companies,  Elm'er  Ellsworth  was  brought 

home  to  be  buried.     When  the  war  was  only  ten 

weeks  old  he  had  been  shot  while  pulling  down 

a  confederate  flag  at   Alexandria,  Virginia — the 

first    Union    officer    to    fall    in    that    four   years' 

conflict.      His   was   a   national   funeral   for,   only 

three    vears    before,    he    had    drilled    his    smart 


Zouaves  in  every  city  from  Chicago  to  New 
York. 

By  June  Chicago 's  soldier  boys  were  scat- 
tered far  and  wide.  They  were  in  camp  at 
Springfield  and  Cairo,  with  Fremont  in  Missouri, 
and  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  At  Lexing- 
ton, Mo.,  the  Irish  brigade  suffered  frightful 
losses  and  covered  itself  with  glory.  Many  a 
brave  boy  was  brought  back  dead  or  wounded. 
Within  twenty-four  hours  Chicago  was  on  the 
battlefield  with  doctors,  nurses,  hospital  supplies, 
and  money.  The  Sanitary  commission  was 
formed  as  were  also  relief  societies  to  care  for 
the  widows  and  orphans  of  soldiers.  Women 
began  to  sew,  knit,  tear  bandages,  and  scrape 
old  linen  for  lint  to  dress  wounds.  (Today  there 
is  an  antiseptic  cotton  prepared  for  dressing 
wounds.)  The  most  prominent  men  in  Chicago 
served  in  the  Sanitary  commission  without  pay. 
Before  the  end  of  the  year  aid  societies  all  over 
the  Northwest  were  pouring  contributions  into 
Chicago.  Later  the  ladies  of  Chicago  netted 
$86,000  from  the  first  great  sanitary  fair. 

Five  weary  months  passed,  and  then  came  the 
battle  of  Fort  Donelson,  in  February,  1862.  And 
now  the  war  was  to  be  brought  to  Chicago. 

Prisoners  at  Camp  Douglas.  In  the  summer 
of  1861  Camp  Douglas,  Chicago,  had  been 
opened  as  a  training  ground  to  receive  troops 
from  the  Northwest.  This  military  camp  lay 
west  of  Cottage  Grove  avenue  between  Thirty- 
first  and  Thirty-third  streets,  running  back  to 
Forest  avenue.  The  tract  was  all  prairie.  There 


ATTEMPT   OF    PRISONERS   TO   ESCAPE   FROM    CAMP   DOUGLAS. 

were  no  streets  laid  out  there  at  that  time  ex- 
cept Cottage  Grove  avenue.  The  street  car  line 
stopped  at  Thirty-first.  The  only  house  on  the 
tract  was  that  of  Henry  Graves  on  what  is  now 
Graves'  place.  The  old  Chicago  university,  then 
only  recently  opened,  overlooked  the  camp  from 
the  south.  In  the  waste  land  east,  to  be  known 
afterward  as  Douglas  square,  Stephen  A.  Doug- 


75 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


las  was  soon  to  lie  at  rest  and  his  counterpart 
in  bronze  was  to  rise  on  a  lofty  marble  shaft  and 
look  out  over  the  lake. 

There  were  drilling,  hur- 
rahing and  -beating  of 
drums  in  the  summer  of 
1861  at  Camp  Douglas,  and 
crowds  of  brave  women  and 
wondering  children  came  to 
say  good-bye  to  the  boys  in 
blue.  Sometimes  the  tents 
dotted  the  prairie  back  to 
State  street  and  spread  to 
the  village  of  Cleaverville 
at  Thirty-ninth  street. 

When  recruiting  came  to 
an  end,  temporarily,  the 
camp  was  turned  over  to 
the  general  government. 
After  the  battle  of  Fort 
Donelson,  the  officer  in  com- 
mand was  ordered  from 
Washington  to  prepare  to 
receive  9,000  prisoners. 

It  was  in  the  depth  of 
winter  and  the  weather  was 
bitterly  cold  when  they  ar- 
rived in  Chicago.  Wind, 
snow,  and  ice  held  high 
i  carnival  at  Camp  Douglas. 
'There  was  no  hospital,  no 
drainage,  not  even  enough 
rough  barracks  to  shelter 
those  suffering  strangers  from  the  sunny  South. 
When  they  marched  from  the  railway  station 
through  the  frozen  streets,  with  broken  shoes  and 
butternut  cotton  clothing  their  misery  touched 
all  hearts.  Imprisonment  at  Camp  Douglas  was  a 
sentence  of  death  for  many  of  them.  Spared  by 
the  bullet,  they  were  to  fall  victim  to  pneu- 
monia, rheumatism,  typhoid,  and  camp  fever. 

There  were  rough  and  ready  Texans,  languid, 
half-French  Louisianians,  fiery  Kentu-?kians, 
proud  Virginians  among  them.  The  officers  were 
attended  by  devoted  slaves.  One  master  was 
seen  to  put  his  own  plaid  about  the  shoulders  of 
a  shivering  negro.  The  next  morning  the  Tribune 
called  for  relief  for  these  prisoners,  saying: 
''These  men  will  be  our  countrymen  again.  The 
memory  of  this  conflict  will  be  effaced. ' ' 

Blue  and  Gray  Sleep  Together.  It  is  good  to 
be  able  to  record  today  when  the  memory  of  that 
conflict  is  effaced,  that  a  wagon-load  of  blankets, 
flannels,  and  medicines,  with  doctors  and  nurses, 
went  out  to  Camp  Douglas  before  noon.  Within 
a  week  the  camp  was  enlarged. 

In  the  next  eight  months  30,OQO  troops  were 
equipped,  and  17,000  prisoners  and  8,000  paroled 
Union  soldiers  were  cared  for  in  Camp  Douglas. 
In  the  summer  time  a  cloud  of  dust  lay  over 
Cottage  Grove  avenue  from  the  constant  pass- 
ing of  military  wagons. 
The  processions  did  not  stop  at  the  camp,  but 


A  CONFEDERATE 
SOLDIER. 


continued  southward  over  the  old  Vincennes  road 
to  the  country  graveyard — now  Oakwoods  ceme- 
tery— at  Sixty-seventh  street.  Sometimes  a 
blue  coat,  sometimes  a  gray,  sometimes  both, 
were  in  the  wagon,  side  by  side,  all  differences 
forgotten  in  death.  Today  you  may  see  at 
Oakwoods  a  monument  which  Chicago  raised  in 
1895  in  honor  of  the  6,000  Confederate  soldiers 
who  died  at  Camp  Douglas. 

In  camp,  prison,  hospital,  in  graves,  and  on 
the  march,  Chicago  boys  were  scattered  all  over 
the  South.  They  were  on  the  firing  line  of  a 
dozen  great  battles.  The  Nineteenth  Illinois 
infantry,  "the  glorious  old  Nineteenth"  it  is 
called  today,  that  enrolled  1,500  men  and  mus- 
tered out  500  at  the  end  of  the  war — was  first 
on  Missionary  Eidge,  on  which  culminated  the 
famous  series  of  battle  around  Chattanooga, 
Tennessee.  At  the  battle  of  Stone  Mills  in  1864 
Colonel  Mulligan  fell  with  these  words  on  his 
lips:  "Lay  me  down  and  save  the  flag,  boys." 
The  Irish  brigade  marched  on,  under  a  new 
leader,  and  prepared  the  way  for  Sheridan  in 
the  Shenandoah. 

The  year  1864  was  a  dark  one  for  Chicago  and 
the  entire  country.  As  the  war  receded,  interest 
in  it  lessened  in  the  North.  Gold  was  held  at 
2.85 — that  is,  a  greenback  dollar  was  worth  less 
than  forty  cents  in  gold.  The  South  was  fight- 
ing desperately,  and  foreign  nations  were  pre- 
dicting success  for  the  Confederacy  and  final 
disruption  of  the  Union. 

The  Assassination  of  Lincoln.  Lincoln  was 
reflected.  General  Lee  surrendered  at  Appo- 
mattox.  President  Lincoln  went  with  four  com- 
panions and  a  guard  of  ten  marines  into  Rich- 
mond, the  capital  of  the  Confederacy.  The  war 
was  over,  the  Union  had  been  preserved.  On 
returning  to  Washington  on  the  fourth  anniver- 
sary of  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  President  Lin- 
coln was  assassinated  at  Ford's  theater. 

"Now  he  belongs  to  the  ages,"  intoned  the 
solemn  voice  of  Secretary  Stanton  in  the  death 


LINCOLN  HOUSE  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL. 

chamber.  The  country  was  plunged  in  grief  too 
deep  for  anger.  The  South  deplored  the  tragedy 
no  less  than  the  North,  as  indeed  it  might,  for 


76 


THE    STORY    OP    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


the  South  had  lost  a  large-hearted  and  power- 
ful friend. 

But  to  Chicago  and  the  West  the  grief  was  not 
only  for  the  great  leader  and  the  embodied  con- 
science and  power  of  the  reunited  nation.  It  was 
also  for  the  man,  the  friend  and  neighbor.  Ten 
years  ago  the  writer  had  an  interview  with 
Lincoln's  cousin,  Dennis  Hanks,  then  ninety 
years  old,  and  now  dead,  in  his  home  in  Charles- 
ton, 111.  He  told  how  the  news  of  Lincoln's 
tragic  death  was  received  in  the  West. 

"I  heered  it  in  this  way.  I  was  settin'  in 
my  shop  peggin '  away  at  a  shoe,  when  a  man 


THE   LAKE    FRONT   BEFORE   THE   FIRE. 

came  in,  and  said:  'Denny,  Honest  Abe's  dead! ' 
"  'Old  Abe  dead?'  I  kep'  sayin'  to  myself. 
I  went  out  to  the  farm  to  see  Sairy  (Lincoln's 
stepmother),  who  lived  there  all  alone,  and  said, 
'  Grandmother,  Abe 's  dead. '  '  Yes,  I  know, ' 
says  she.  'I've  been  awaitin'  fur  it.  I  knowed 
they'd  kill  him,'  and  she  never  asked  how  it 
happened.  A  body'd  a  thought  the  earth  stopped 
whirlin*  fur  a  few  days  the  way  everybody 
went  on.  Even  here  in  Charleston  it  was  like  a 
black  cloud  had  covered  the  sun. 

"It  was  different  with  me  who  had  knowed 
him  as  a  danglin ',  lathy,  awkward  boy,  full  of 
fun  and  stories  and  kindness,  so  big  and  strong 
and  gentle  with  everything  weak  and  helpless — 
to  think  of  him  lyin'  there  dead. 

"Why,  we  stopped  in  the  streets,  strong  men, 
and  cried  when  he  was  bein'  brought  home  to 
Springfield.  There  wasn  't  any  tradin '  done 
scarcely.  I  can't  believe  it  yit.  There  won't 
be  another  man  like  Abe  Lincoln  this  side  o' 
Judgment  day.  He  didn't  know  how  to  be  mean, 
to  do  a  mean  thing,  or  think  a  mean  thought. 


When    God    made    Abe    Lincoln    He    made    him 
good. ' ' 

Lincoln  belongs  to  the  ages,  but  he  belonged 
peculiarly  to  the  West.  Chicago  wore  public 
mourning  until  after  he  had  lain  in  state  here, 
for  thousands  who  had  known  him  in  life  to 
gaze  once  more  on  his  beloved  features,  and 
until  he  had  been  laid  away  at  Springfield. 

When  Johnny  Comes  Marching  Home.  Then 
it  welcomed  home  the  boys  in  blue.  Of  the  20,000 
who  had  marched  from  Chicago  to  remain  in  the 
ranks  until  peace  was  declared,  only  half  were 
mustered  out. 

^  Camp  Douglas  was  aban- 
doned. The  high  board  fence 
was  torn  down,  the  prairie 
was  criss-crossed  by  streets, 
and  the  blocks  were  cut  up 
into  lots.  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
arose  in  .bronze  on  Douglas 
square.  A  grocery  store  was 
built  on  Cottage  Grove  ave- 
nue, and  a  hotel  and  livery 
stable  on  the  corner  of  Thirty- 
first  street.  The  street  car 
line  was  extended  to  Hyde 
Park  village,  at  Thirty-ninth 
street.  Soldiers  went  back  be- 
hind desks  and  counters  and 
into  factories. 

All  the  works  of  peace  went 
on.     Water  was   let   into   the 
first   tunnel   from   the   crib   in 
1867.     Lincoln  park  was  cre- 
ated   out    of    the    old     bury- 
ing ground  beyond  North  avenue,  and  the  north 
park  commission  was  created.     A  clearing  house 
for   banks  was   established;   the   river  was  tun- 
neled for  car  lines  at  Washington  and  La  Salle 
streets;    the    south    end    of    Goose    Island    was 
dredged  out  of  the  river  at  the  forks  to  make 
room  for  shipping;  the  high  grade  level  was  es- 
tablished  in   all    downtown    streets;    the    Union 
stock  yards  cleared  the  railroad  yards  of  cattle. 
So  far  as  could  be  foreseen  Chicago  had  en- 
tered another  decade  of  growth.    By  the  govern- 
ment census  of  1870  it  had  a  population  of  298,- 
977.    In  spite  of  the  war  it  had  trebled  in  size  in 
ten  years.     Like  a  boy  too  early  come  into  for- 
tune, Chicago  was  dizzy  from  its  sense  of  power. 
In   the   business   center  were  solid   blocks  of 
brick  and  stone,  but  when  it  was  pointed  out  by 
newspapers    and    insurance    companies    that    the 
hundreds  of  acres  of  pine  buildings  which  sur- 
rounded   these    invited    the    destruction    of    the 
city,  Chicago  laughed  and  went  on  its  reckless, 
energetic,    wealth-making   way,    heedless    of    its 
over-present  danger. 


77 


CHAPTER   XL 


CHICAGO  BEFORE  THE  GREAT  FIRE. 
(1870-1871.) 

Chicago  Continues  to  Grow. 
In  1871,  six  years  after  the 
close  of  the  war,  Chicago 
ranked  as  the  fifth  city  in 
the  United  States.  In  one 
decade  it  had  trebled  in  pop- 
ulation and  its  wealth  had 
increased  twenty  fold.  It 
was  now  the  metropolis  of 
the  northwest  with  334,000 
people.  As  a  city  it  was 
marked  by  amazing  energy, 
incredible  achievement  and 
boundless  conceit.  No  dis- 
aster or  failure  had  tem- 
pered its  self  satisfaction. 

Eastern     cities     had     suf- 
LAMP      FOUND     IN   fered   financially  because   of 

O'LEARY'S   BARN.       the      fal1      in      PrieeS      at      the 

close  of  the  war,  but  Chicago  scarcely  felt  the 
depression  at  all,  for  the  drop  in  values  was 
more  than  made  up  by  the  increased  volume 
of  trade.  The  Union  Pacific  railway  had  been 
completed  in  1869,  thus  adding  the  mining  states 
to  Chicago's  trade  territory. 

Emigrants  again  poured  through  the  gateway, 
and  to  an  enormously  expanded  West.  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  sent  millions 
of  bushels  of  wheat  and  corn  through  Chicago. 
Nebraska  was  added  to  the  ranching  country. 
Northern  Wisconsin  and  Michigan  were  one  vast 
lumber  camp,  filled  with  the  sound  of  the  wood- 
man's ax  and  the  buzz  of  the  sawmill.  On 
every  stream  the  floating  logs  descended  to  some 
lake  port  in  the  spring.  Western  Iowa,  Ne- 
braska, and  Kansas  were  still  ranch  country, 
growing  stock  on  the  prairies  for  Chicago 's  in- 
satiable packing  houses.  But  miners  were  push- 
ing into  Colorado,  and  stock-raisers  into  the 
Great  American  Desert,  across  which  railways 
were  weaving  their  magic  shuttles  of  trade. 

Immediately  behind  Chicago  were  quarries  of 
building  stone;  and  coal  mines  in  operation  for 
a  generation  were  furnishing  fuel  for  the  mul- 
tiplying railways  and  factories.  Cheap  fuel, 
cheap  water,  cheap  transportation,  for  the  lake 
traffic  kept  down  railway  rates,  and  its  unrivaled 
situation,  where  it  must  receive  with  one  hand 
and  distribute  with  the  other,  had  caused  Chicago 
to  forge  to  the  front  with  a  rapidity  which 
amazed  the  world. 


It  now  had  thirteen  trunk  lines  of  railways 
and  10,000  miles  of  tracks  contributing  to  its 
trade.  One  hundred  and  twenty  passenger  and 
as  many  freight  trains  arrived  every  day,  and 
13,000  vessels  in  a  season.  There  were  seventeen 
elevators  with  a  capacity  of  12,000,000  bushels 
of  grain  whose  value  circulated  on  the  streets 
as  warehouses'  receipts.  There  were  twenty- 
five  banks  with  $35,000,000  on  deposit.  The 
manufactures  of  Chicago  had  reached  the  enor- 
mous sum  of  $76,000,000  annually;  55,000,000 
bushels  of  grain  passed  through  this  port  and 
$40,000,000  worth  of  packing  house  products 
were  exported.  The  value  of  all  property  was 
near  $600,000,000,  on  which  $6,000,000  was  col- 
lected in  taxes. 

These  figures  were  astounding  for  a  city  only 
one  generation  old.  In  the  East  men  gasped 
at  Chicago's  breathless  pace,  and  in  Europe 
this  mushroom  metropolis  was  frankly  spoken  of 
as  the  eighth  wonder  of  the  world.  A  corre- 
spondent of  the  London  Daily  News  in  1870,  de- 
scribed Chicago  as  "like  some  uproarious  Rot- 
terdam, with  its  ugly,  foul,  crowded  river  and 
rakish,  swarming  bridges;  but  with  certain 
streets,  avenues,  shops,  hotels,  warehouses, 
churches,  and  theaters,  that  rival  those  of  Old 
World  capitals.  Michigan  avenue,  where  her 
merchant  princes  live  in  Eastern  splendor,  is  a 
sort  of  Piccadilly  with  a  lake  instead  of  a  park 
under  its  drawing  room  windows,  while  th;1 
north  shore  residence  district  has  all  the  spa- 
ciousness and  repose  of  an  old  aristocracy. ' ' 

Let  us  see,  now,  what  this  rich,  busy,  noisy, 
boastful,  luxurious,  reckless  city  was  like,  in  the 
summer  of  1871,  when  a  hundred  new  inhabit- 
ants were  whirled  into  its  maelstrom  of  money- 
making  every  day. 

For  the  fourth  time  the  city  limits  had  been 
extended.  They  were  then  at  Fullerton  avenue, 
Crawford  avenue,  and  Thirty-ninth  street.  Then, 
as  now,  for  administrative  purposes,  Chicago  was 
divided  into  South,  West,  and  North  divisions, 
the  boundaries  defined  by  the  river  and  .its 
branches.  Its  area  was  approximately  thirty-six 
square  miles,  but  a  large  percentage  of  the  area 
was  unimproved  prairie  land,  while  one-third  of 
the  wealth  was  crowded  upon  one-tenth  of  the 
area  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  The  business  dis- 
trict was  concentrated  in  the  South  division,  be- 
tween Adams  street,  State  street,  and  the  river. 

A  great  number  of  people  habitually  walked  to 
and  from  their  places  of  business,  to  chureh,  and 


78 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


to  evening  entertainments.  The  finest  residences 
•were  only  a  few  blocks  from  the  shops  and  thea- 
ters, and  the  workingman's  cottage  and  cowshed 
were  next  door  to  the  factory  which  employed 
him.  It  was  estimated  that  200,000  people 
passed  every  day  over  the  twenty-seven  bridges 
which  spanned  the  river. 

The  river  and  its  branches  scarcely  separated 
the  divisions  of  the  city,  for  they  were  crowded 
with  shipping.  The  vessels  were  of  wood  with 
forests  of  rigging  aloft,  cargoes  of  lumber  on 
deck,  and  grain  or  coal  in  the  holds.  At  inter- 
vals of  two  or  three  blocks  were  center  pivot 
bridges,  constructed  of  timbers  and  iron  and 
swung  on  wooden  piling.  Lining  both  banks  of 
the  river  and  its  branches,  from  North  avenue 
to  Twelfth  street,  were  enormous  grain  elevators, 
lumber  yards,  coal  yards,  factories,  railroad 
yards  with  rolling  stock  on  the  tracks,  round- 
houses, depots,  breweries,  tan  yards,  warehouses, 
gas  works,  and  livery  stables.  In  among  these, 
on  both  sides  of  the  river  and  beyond  them  in 
the  West  division,  were  acres  of  little  frame 
cottages,  barns,  cowsheds,  and  fences,  inter- 
spersed with  business  streets  where,  if  the  build- 
ings were  of  brick,  the  walls  were  thin,  the  par- 
titions of  pine,  and  the  roofs  of  tar  and  felt. 

Chicago  Courted  Disaster.  Inside  the  fire 
limits  half  the  buildings  were  of  wood,  built 
before  the  fire  limits  were  established;  but  the 
limits  were  so  constricted  as  to  be  a  farce.  On 
the  South  side  the  line  Straggled  from  Twenty- 
second  street  and  the  lake,  to  Adams  and  the 


rX-FIRE  CHIEF  DEN-  FIRE     CHIEF     WILI.- 

NIS  J.  SWEENIE.  IAM    MUSHAM. 

TWO  OP  CHICAGO'S  FAMOUS  FIKE 
FIGHTERS. 

river.  On  the  North  it  ran  from  the  river  along 
Illinois  to  Wells,  and  thence  north  to  Chicago 
avenue,  while  on  the  West  side  it  embraced  only 
the  small  territory  between  the  Lake  and  Madi- 
son, and  west  to  Halsted! 

Around  the  concentrated  wealjth  of  the  city 
was  thus  legally  drawn  a  cordon  of  kindling- 
wood,  while  great  wedges  of  pine  buildings  were 
thrust  into  the  very  heart  of  Chicago.  Decay- 
ing wooden  shanties  and  towering  pine  tenements 
flanked  marble  and  iron  palaces.  Rows  of  rotten 
rookeries  lurked  in  the  rear  of  business  blocks. 
The  law  was  constantly  violated.  Landlords  re- 
sisted in  court  the  destruction  of  condemned 


buildings,  and  filled  their  fire-traps  with  the 
refuse  of  the  city's  population.  Ignorance,  in- 
difference, and  crime  were  thus  made  guardians 
of  the  safety  of  the  public  and  its  property, 
and  the  people  seemed  to  have  no  appreciation 
of  this  ever-present  menace. 

Below  Adams  street,  near  Fifth  avenue,  with- 
in a  block  of  magnificent  depots,  hotels,  and  the 
business  palaces  of  La  Salle  and  Monroe,  was  a 
plague  spot  known  as  Conley's  Patch.  It  was  a 
region  densely  covered  with  old  wooden  tene- 
ments, hovels,  and  saloons,  and  occupied  by  a 
class  of  people  constantly  under  the  surveillance 
of  the  police.  Between  Conley's  Patch  and  the 
river  were  the  gas  works  and  a  tar  and  felt-roof- 
ing works. 

From  La  Salle  and  Adams  to  the  lake  and  the 
main  river  were  solid  blocks  of  brick,  stone,  iron, 
and  marble,  and  many  of  them  supposed  to  be 
fire-proof.  Here  were  all  the  great  retail  stores, 
the  office  buildings,  the  government  building, 
courthouse,  banks,  theaters,  and  hotels.  On  the 
North  side,  the  old  Kinzie  addition,  east  of  State 
street  and  north  of  Illinois  to  the  city  limits, 
kept  its  character  of  thirty  years  before  as  a 
fine  residence  district.  The  houses  were  mostly 
frame,  but  were  large  and  set  in  spacious 
grounds,  and  were  occupied  by  people  of  wealth 
and  culture,  who  had  treasures  to  guard.  Often 
there  were  no  more  than  four  such  houses  in  a 
block,  and  each  was  surrounded  by  elm  trees, 
stables,  and  green  houses.  The  water  works  and 
a  brewery,  on  Chicago  avenue  and  the  lake  shore, 
ivero  the  only  breaks  in  this  social  seclusion. 

From  Clark  street  west  to  the  river  and  be- 
yond it,  to.  the  West  side  prairie,  was  a  sharp 
contrast.  Frail  buildings  were  crowded  up  to 
the  factories,  lumber  and  coal  yards,  and  the 
railroad  yards  that  lined  the  river. 

Chicago  all  "Sham  and  Shingles."  With  the 
few  exceptions  even  the  best  buildings  every- 
where were  less  substantial  than  they  seemed. 
Buildings  were  put  up  without  any  regard  to 
durability,  health,  or  safety.  Sudden  and  over- 
whelming prosperity  seemed  to  have  killed  the 
ordinary  sense  of  precaution.  ''Walls  were  run 
up,"  if  the  Chicago  Tribune  of  the  issue  of 
September  10,  1871,  is  to  be  believed,  "a  hun- 
dred feet  high  and  but  a  single  brick  in  thick- 
ness." These  structures  were  partitioned, 
floored,  and  fitted  with  pine;  a  roof  of  tar  and 
felt  was  put  on,  and  a  heavy  wooden  or  sheet 
iron  cornice  was  run  around  the  top  and  painted 
to  simulate  stone.  "There  were  miles  of  such 
fire  traps,  pleasing  to  the  eye,  looking  substan- 
tial, but  all  sham  and  shingles." 

Not  only  stores  and  warehouses  but  factories 
and  hotels  where,  if  a  fire  broke  out  at  night,  the 
inmates  could  scarce  hope  to  escape,  were  built 
after  this  fashion,  as  well  as  churches  and  thea- 
ters. Such  buildings  frequently  tumbled  down ; 
cornices  fell  of  their  own  weight.  A  spark  on 
a  roof  flooded  one  with  flames  in  an  instant;  the 


79 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


fragile  framework  snapped,  the  marble  veneering 
peeled  away,  the  cornices  became  flaming  fire- 
brands to  carry  destruction  to  neighboring  build- 
ings. ' '  Chicago  was  a  city  of  everlasting  pine, 
shingles,  shams,  veneers,  stucco,  and  putty,"  to 
quote  the  Tribune  again.  And  the  people  were 
content  with  these  gay  shells,  filled  them  with 
luxurious  appointments,  sheltered  their  loved 
ones,  and  went  out  of  them  into  the  roaring 
streets  to  coin  money.  If  one  burned  the  insur- 
ance would  very  nearly  build  another  one  as  bad. 

Chicago  Had  Need  to  be  Vigilant.  And  yet 
Chicago  lay  in  such  a  position  as  to  awake  in  her 
citizens  unusual  vigilance.  On  a  flat  prairie  it 
was  open  to  all  the  winds  of  heaven.  Wind  was 
always  blowing,  either  from  the  inland  sea  at  its 
feet,  or  across  the  plains  at  its  back,  so  that  it 
had  already  won  the  nick-name  of  "The  Windy 
City. ' '  The  winds  from  the  east  were  usually 
wet,  and  fires  originating  near  the  lake  rarely 
spread  westward.  The  prevailing  summer  winds, 
coming  from  the  southwest,  were  dry  and  hot, 
and,  in  the  path  of  the  sirocco,  was  a  four-mile 
line  of  pine  buildings  and  vast  stores  of  inflam- 
mable materials  under  tar  roofs  and  in  open 
yards.  The  shipping  and  bridges  gave  a  clear 
right  of  way  for  fire  across  the  river.  For 
years  Chicago  had  invited  destruction.  All  that 
was  required  were  a  long  dry  season,  a  gale  of 
wind  from  the  southwest,  and  an  exhausted  fire 
department. 

All  of  these  things  happened  separately  many 
times.  On  the  8th  of  October,  1871,  they  hap- 
pened all  together.  Two  of  the  conditions  for 
a  great  fire  in  Chicago  had  been  present  for 
three  months.  The  summer  of  1871  was  un- 
usually dry  and  hot.  In  Chicago  a  drenching 
rain  of  1^  inches  fell  on  the  evening  of  July 
3.  During  the  next  fourteen  weeks,  up  to  the 
night  of  October  9,  only  one  inch  fell.  The 
average  for  the  season  is  about  ten  inches. 

The  Drought  of  '71.  In  this  long  period  of 
heat  and  drought,  the  middle  West  and  North- 
west lay  sweltering  in  the  sun  and  gasping  in 
the  shade.  On  the  western  prairies  of  Iowa  and 
Nebraska  the  ranches  burned  down.  Rivers  and 
wells  went  dry  and  cattle  perished  of  thirst. 
The  leaves  of  trees  shriveled  up  and  dropped  in 
midsummer.  Sunstrokes  were  reported  daily.  By 
September  sparks  from  locomotives  kindled  fires 
on  the  prairies,  in  corn  fields,  and  in  the  pine 
forests  to  the  north.  Day  after  day  these  fires 
increased  in  number  and  extent.  Thousands  of 
acres  were  burned  over,  including  farmsteads 
and  villages. 

More  than  a  hundred  villages,  600  farms  with 
stock  and  machinery,  saw-mills,  flour  mills,  and 
lumber  camps  -went  up  in  flames.  The  total  loss 
of  life  in  these  western  fires  was  1,400,  and  of 
property  $11,000,000,  aside  from  the  losses  from 
the  great  Chicago  fire.  The  forest  and  prairie 
fires  gradually  drew  nearer  Chicago.  The  flames 
swept  the  railway  lines,  and  many  a  train  crew 


came  in  blackened  and  smelling  of  smoke  and 
with  tales  of  running  a  gauntlet  of  fire  in  some 
belt  of  timber  or  across  a  blazing  cornfield. 
Almost  daily,  refugees  from  burned-out  districts 
arrived. 

Then  large  towns  in  the  lumber  districts  be- 
gan to  go.  On  the  same  night  as  the  fire  at 
Chicago,  Peshtigo,  Wis.,  a  town  of  2,000,  that 
had  grown  up  around  the  saw  mills  established 
by  William  B.  Ogden,  of  Chicago,  and  which 
stood  on  a  stream  in  the  heart  of  a  forest  of 
oaks,  pines  and  tamaracks,  was  swept  by  a  for- 
est fire.  Eight  hundred  people  perished.  The 
loss  of  $3,000,000  fell  on  Mr.  Ogden,  who  sus- 
tained an  equal  loss  in  Chicago. 

Of  Chicago's  60,000  buildings  40,000  were  of 
wood.  Out  of  these  the  hot  winds  had  sucked 
every  atom  of  moisture.  Paint  blistered,  shin- 
gles curled  up  in  the  sun,  and  weather  boarding 
started  from  the  nails.  By  the  last  week  in 
September  small  fires  were  frequent,  especially 
on  the  West  Side.  They  started  in  sheds,  hay 
lofts,  in  defective  chimneys  and  in  the  piles 
of  inflammable  materials  which  were  allowed 
to  accumulate  in  the  alleys.  Every  factory 
chimney,  kitchen  fire,  kerosene  lamp,  locomotive 
smokestack,  tugboat  and  steamer  became  a 
menace.  Conditions  favored  the  incendiary  who, 
in  order  to  rob  houses  or  to  elude  the  police, 
did  not  hesitate  to  start  a  blaze. 


_r 


THE   FIRE  OF  SATURDAY   NIGHT,  OCT.   7. 

(Shaded  portion  shows  district  burned  over.) 

Thirty  Fires  in  One  Week.  In  a  warehouse 
at  State  and  Sixteenth  streets  there  was  a  half 
million  dollar  fire  on  September  30  that  was  be- 
lieved to  have  been  of  incendiary  origin.  With- 
in the  next  six  days  the  fire  department  was 
called  out  twenty-nine  times.  The  fires  were 
mostly  on  the  West  Side,  and  as  they  were  al- 
ways discovered  and  put  out  promptly  when  a 
fire  alarm  was  rung  and  the  engines  clanged 
through  the  streets  everybody  said,  "  It 's  only  a 
fire  on  the  West  Side." 

But  the  third  condition  for  a  great  destruc- 
tive fire  in  Chicago  was  rapidly  approaching. 
The  fire  department  was  becoming  exhausted 
by  its  constant  fight  with  flames. 

The  drought  and  heat  ran  on  unbroken  into 
October.  The  scorching  wind  still  blew  steadily 


80 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


out  of  the  southwest,  and  the  sun  was  like  a 
burning-glass  overhead.  In  the  courthouse  tower 
the  watchman  never  relaxed  his  vigilance.  In 
all  the  175  churches  of  Chicago  prayers  were 
offered  up  for  rain;  the  55,000  children  enrolled 
in  the  Sunday  schools  learned  to  ask  for  rain 
as  the  greatest  boon  that  could  be  granted  to 
a  parched  and  smouldering  earth. 

And  then  came  the  fire-  of  Saturday  night, 
October  7.  This  would  have  been  known  in  his- 
tory as  the  Great  Chicago  Fire  had  it  not  been 
sunk  into  insignificance  by  the  overwhelming 
horror  of  Sunday  night. 

The  fire  of  Saturday  night  struck  consterna- 
tion to  the  heart  of  Chicago,  for  it  was  exactly 
placed  to  be  a  menace  to  the  city.  It  started 
in  a  planing  mill  on  South  Canal  street,  between 
Adams  and  Van  Buren,  only  a  block  from  the 
river,  with  its  crowded  shipping,  and  between 
two  bridges. 

The  Fire  of  Saturday  Night.  The  building 
was  a  brick  shell  with  tar  roof,  filled  with  shav- 
ings and  planed  lumber.  Almost  before  the 
first  engine  reached  it  it  collapsed.  A  paper  box 
factory  stood  behind  it,  a  row  of  frame  cottages 
and  another  flimsy  factory  to  the  north.  The 
rest  of  the  block  was  covered  with  frame  sheds 
and  lumber  piles.  A  strong  wind  was  blowing 
from  the  south.  Within  twenty  minutes  after 
the  first  alarm  was  turned  in,  the  four  blocks 
bounded  by  Van  Buren,  Adams,  Clinton  street 
and  the  river  were  ablaze,  with  their  frame 
tenements,  lumber,  coal  and  wood  yards,  rail- 
way sheds  and  the  rolling  stock  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania lines. 

The  wooden  viaduct  leading  to  the  Adams 
street  bridge  took  fire.  The  open  space  below 
formed  such  a  draft  that  the  flames  leaped  up 
with  a  frightful  roar  and  threatened  to  cross 
the  river.  The  bridges  were  turned  and  tug- 
boats pulled  the  shipping  out  of  danger.  On 
three  sides  firemen  bombarded  the  flames  with 
a  dozen  lines  of  hose.  Citizens  turned  in  by 
hundreds  and  tore  down  a  line  of  frame  shanties 
to  save  the  Union  depot  and  an  enormous  grain 
elevator  that  stood  by  the  Adams  street  bridge. 
On  the  river  front  nothing  could  be  done  but 
let  the  fire  burn  itself  out.  The  lack  of  fire- 
boats  was  felt  to  be  a  calamity  if  not  a  civic 
crime. 

Glowing  cinders  drifted  on  the  wind.  Blocks 
away  to  the  north  and  east  people  were  on  their 
roofs  drenching  the  shingles  and  stamping  out 
firebrands.  All  night  and  until  late  the  next 
day  the  fire  department  used  all  its  resources 
to  extinguish  the  smouldering  piles  of  lumber 
and  coal  long  after  the  fire  had  ceased  to  be  a 
pyrotechnic  display.  No  such  fire  had  ever  be- 
fore visited  Chicago.  In  two  hours  four  entire 
blocks  had  been  burnt  over  and  $750,000  worth 
of  property  destroyed. 

It  was  4  o'clock  Sunday  afternoon  when  the 
fire  boys,  after  eighteen  hours  of  fire  fighting, 
turned  into  their  quarters  to  rest,  some  of  the 


engines  disabled,  some  hose  burned  and  many 
men  half-blinded  by  fire  and  smoke.  The  en- 
tire department  was  exhausted  but  not  demoral- 
ized. In  less  than  six  hours  these  civic  soldiers 
were  to  line  up  again  in  the  front  of  battle 
to  fight  for  the  life  of  Chicago. 

The  wind  had  died  down,  with  only  now  and 
then  a  fitful  gust  from  the  south.  Sunday 
evening  was  warm.  Unusual  numbers  went  to 
church.  The  guests  at  the  hotels  promenaded 
on  Michigan  avenue  in  holiday  attire.  Family 
circles  gathered  for  a  quiet  Sabbath  evening 
on  lawns  and  porches.  The  Germans  thronged 
their  beer  gardens  to  listen  to  the  music  of 
bands. 

To  many  working  people  who  toil  all  the  week 
Sunday  evening  is  the  occasion  for  social  gath- 
erings in  private  houses.  Thus  it  happened  that 
at  137  De  Koven  street  a  family  named  Mc- 
Laughlin  was  celebrating  the  arrival  of  a  rela- 
tive from  Ireland.  The  McLaughlins  lived  in 
the  front  rooms  of  a  double  cottage  which  they 
rented  from  Patrick  O'Leary,  their  landlord 
living  in  the  rear  rooms. 


HOUSE    NOW    STANDING    AT    137    DE    KOVEN    STREET. 


The  Historic  Home  of  the  O'Learys.  No  one 
in  the  city,  perhaps,  felt  greater  relief  when  the 
fire  of  Saturday  night  waa  got  under  control 
than  did  Mr.  and  Mrs.  O'Leary,  for  their  home 
and  all  their  earthly  possessions  were  contained 
on  this  lot  at  137  De  Koven  street,  which  was 
only  four  blocks  south  of  the  burned  district. 
On  the  back  end  of  the  lot  was  a  large  stable, 
which  sheltered  a  horse,  six  cows  and  a  calf. 
Mrs.  O  'Leary  supplied  her  neighbors  with  milk. 

The  block  was  a  typical  one,  covered  with 
small  frame  buildings,  the  lots  separated  by 
board  fences,  the  alleys  cluttered  with  dry 
refuse  and  lined  with  sheds  and  barns.  The 
fire  of  Saturday  night  had  made  Mrs.  O'Leary 
unusually  cautious.  By  5  o  'clock  she  had  milked 


81 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


and  fed  her  cows.  At  7  she  had  fed  the  horse 
in  the  alley  and  put  him  into  the  barn.  She 
declared  afterward  that  the  work  was  all  fin- 
ished and  the  stable  locked  for  the  night  be- 
fore dark,  and  that  she  had  not  had  a  lamp 
near  the  barn. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  O'Leary  went  to  bed  at  8:30. 
Two  neighbors  dropped  in  during  the  evening 
and  saw  them  there.  They  also  heard  the  sound 
of  a  fiddle  in  the  McLaughlin  part  of  the  cot- 
tage and  remarked  that  the  young  people 
seemed  to  be  having  a  good  time.  One  theory 
that  was  held  as  to  the  origin  of  the  fire  was 
that  this  party,  wanting  milk  for  a  punch  or 
an  oyster  stew,  induced  Mrs.  O  'Leary  to  go  to 


THE    PUBLIC    SQUARE    BEFORE   THE   FIRE, 


the  barn  to  milk  a  cow  again.  This  was  vigor- 
ously denied  by  Mrs.  O'Leary.  Had  she  done 
so,  and  had  the  cow  kicked  over  the  lamp,  she 
would  have  immediately  alarmed  the  neighbor- 
hood in  frantic  efforts  to  save  her  property. 

The  other  theory  is  that  the  young  people  at 
the  McLaughlins  concluded,  just  for  fun,  as 
many  such  a  prank  has  been  done  thoughtlessly, 
to  help  themselves  from  Mrs.  O 'Leary 's  cow. 
The  lateness  of  the  hour  and  the  strangeness 
of  the  milkmaid  may  have  ruffled  the  temper  of 
the  cow,  and  she  resented  the  liberty  by  kicking 
the  lamp  over.  Every  member  of  the  Mc- 
Laughlin family  denied  having  been  in  the  barn 
for  any  purpose.  The  visitor  could  just  as 
easily  have  been  any  other  neighbor,  or  even  3 
deliberate  thief  from  a  distance.  That  some 
one  entered  the  barn  was  proved,  for  when  the 
fire  broke  out  the  door  was  found  unlocked,  and 
in  the  ruins  was  found  an  overturned  and 
broken  common  glass  lamp  that  had  held  a  pint 
of  kerosene. 

The  Great  Chicago  Fire  is  Kindled.  Whoever 
did  the  mischief  was  evidently  not  anxious  to 
publish  the  fact.  About  9  o  'clock  James  Dalton, 
who  lived  in  a  frame  cottage  the  next  door 


north,  heard  a  woman  scream.  The  sound  came 
from  the  O  'Leary  premises.  Ten  minutes  later 
members  of  his  family  saw  fire  bursting  from 
the  O'Leary  stable. 

Two  other  neighbors  saw  it  almost  at  the  same 
moment  and  hastened  to  arouse  the  O'Learys 
and  to  try  to  rescue  the  animals.  In  the  con- 
fusion no  alarm  was  sent  in,  for  in  an  instant 
the  barn  was  blazing  as  well  as  the  board 
fences  and  the  refuse  in  the  alley.  In  five 
minutes  the  Dalton  house  was  afire  and  the  fam- 
ily was  fleeing  for  life.  The  O'Learys  had 
rushed  from  their  bed  and  were  half -crazed  by 
their  misfortune.  The  people  at  the  McLaughlin 
party  fled  in  terror. 

Everyone  in  the  neighbor- 
hood seemed  to  think  the  fire 
started  as  early  as  9  o  'clock. 
This  must  have  been  an  error, 
for  it  burned  with  extraor- 
dinary rapidity,  yet  it  was  not 
seen  from  any  of  the  three 
engine  houses  nearby.  It  was 
9:28  when  it  was  sighted  by 
the  watchman  in  the  court- 
house tower.  Even  then  the 
blaze  looked  so  small  that  the 
watchman  could  not  make  out 
its  locality.  He  called  down 
to  the  fire  alarm  telegraph 
operator  to  call  up  box  342. 
This  box  was  at  Halsted  and 
Canalport,  a  mile  southwest 
of  the  fire.  Three  engines 
that  were  nearer  thus  did  not 
get  the  first  call. 

The  "Little  Giant"  hose 
truck  from  No.  6,  under  Foreman  William 
Musham,  was  first  on  the  scene.  He  laid  a  line 
of  hose  across  the  O  'Leary  lot  and  soon  had  a 
stream  of  water  on  the  fire.  By  that  time  two 
other  barns,  three  sheds  and  the  Dalton  house 
were  burning.  Had  three  or  four  effective  en- 
gines been  on  the  ground  at  that  time  the  fire 
might  have  been  controlled,  for  only  a  light 
breeze  was  blowing  out  of  the  south. 

But  for  nearly  thirty  minutes  the  Little  Giant 
battled  with  the  flames  alone.  No.  5,  which  ar- 
rived next,  was  partly  disabled,  so  that  its  fire 
had  to  be  raked  out  of  the  box.  The  foreman 
of  No.  5  had  been  on  continuous  duty  for  sev- 
erty-two  hours  and  was  nearly  blind  from 
smoke.  When  a  general  alarm  was  sent  in  at 
10  o'clock  the  fire  had  reached  Taylor  street, 
and  presented  all  the  difficulties  of  the  fire  of 
the  night  before. 

It  was  10  o'clock  when  the  courthouse  bell 
pealed  out  its  solemn  note  of  warning.  »  For 
four  hours  it  was  to  boom  above  all  the  noises 
of  that  awful  night.  People  who  heard  it  toll 
across  the  doomed  city  hear  it  now  in  their 
dreams,  although  a  whole  generation  has  passed 
away. 


82 


CHAPTER  XII. 


The  Great  Chicago  Fire,  October  8  and  9,  1871. 

At  the  boom  of  the  courthouse  bell  people  all 
over  the  city  sprang  from  their  beds  and  rushed 
into  the  streets,  for  the  bell  was  used  only  to 
sound  a  general  alarm. 

From  every  engine  house  the  machines  raced 
through  the  streets  with  clanging  gongs  and 
pounding  hoofs.  The  wind  from  the  south  sud- 
denly whipped  around  to  the  southwest  and 
stiffened  to  a  gale.  The  western  sky  was  lit  up 
by  a  glare  that  illuminated  the  entire  city.  The 
fire  was  speeding  toward  the  river,  as  it  had 
done  the  night  before,  licking  up  the  little 
wooden  buildings  as  if  they  were  so  many  pack- 
ing cases.  The  direction  of  the  wind  was 
marked  by  a  drift  of  glowing  cinders  over  the 
business  district  in  the  South  division.  Still 
no  alarm  was  felt  that  the  fire  would  cross  the 
river.  It  had  been  as  bad  the  night  before,  and 
the  fire  department  had  got  it  under  control. 

Suddenly  the  flames  shot  up  the  steeple  of  a 
church  on  Clinton  street;  then  a  sulphurous  sheet 
of  flame  enveloped  a  match  factory;  a  planing 
mill  became  a  crimson  cube. 

Then  the  Panic  Began. 
On  '  the  West  Side  people 
were  fleeing  across  the 
bridges  or  to  the  prairies 
for  safety,  carrying  every- 
thing imaginable,  from 
babies  to  beds.  As  far 
away  as  Halsted  street  . 
were  frantic  mothers,  cry-| 
ing  children,  and  raving" 
men.  All  the  tongues  of 
Babel  were  let  loose  in 
maddened  cries.  Furniture, 
express  wagons  and  drays 
blockaded  the  streets.  All 
the  little  homes  to  the  west 
of  the  fire  opened  to  re- 
ceive refugees. 

The  fire  kept  pace  with 
the  rising  wind.  Taylor, 
Forquer,  Ewing  and  Polk 

streets  were  reached  successively  and  passed. 
Towering  skyward  a  hundred  feet,  the  army  of 
flames  raced  to  the  river.  Burning  brands  were 
hurled  through  the  air.  As  early  as  10:30 
brands  kindled  blazes  on  the  courthouse  cupola 
at  Randolph  and  Clark,  and  the  watchman  put 
them  out  with  hand  grenades. 

The   fire   ran   north  in   two   columns,   covering 


two  blocks  in  v/idth,  the  eastern  column  in  ad- 
vance. Planing  mills,  chair  factories,  lumber 
yards,  railroad  shops  and  rolling  stock  all  fed 
the  flames,  innumerable  sheds,  fences,  plank 
walks  and  cottages  furnishing  the  kindling  wood. 
So  rapidly  did  the  fire  leap  forward  that  the 
fire  boys  conducted  a  gallant  retreat,  running 
one  minute,  facing  about  for  another  charge 
the  next.  No.  14  fire  engine  was  surrounded 
by  flames.  The  firemen  abandoned  it  with  its 
hose  and  fled  for  their  lives. 

In  Van  Buren  street  another  engine  was 
abandoned.  At  the  end  of  the  Van  Buren  street 
bridge,  which  had  been  swung  open,  stood  a 
grain  elevator,  sided  and  roofed  with  iron. 
Spectators  who  crowded  the  bridges  above 
Adams  street  did  not  think  the  elevator  could 
possibly  burn,  but,  after  only  a  moment's  re- 
sistance, the  flames  engulfed  it.  It  became  a 
tower  of  fire,  the  thin  iron  casing  running 
molten  from  the  top. 

But  now  the  fire  must  surely  burn  itself  out, 
the  people  thought,  for  it  had  reached  the  four 


MAP    OF    BUKNKD    UISTKICT. 

The  tire  began  at  extreme  southwest   corner  and   swept  diagonally   across 
city  to  water  works.     Line  shows  route  taken. 

blocks  burned  over  the  night  before.  A  black- 
ened chasm  nearly  a  thousand  feet  square  lay 
along  the  river  front  between  the  fire  and  fur- 
ther food  for  the  flames.  To  the  horror  of  all 
who  looked,  long  banners  and  pennants  of  flames 
streamed  out  on  the  gale,  spanned  the  space 
with  one  vaulting  leap,  and  fell  on  the  elevator 
and  depot  at  Adams  street. 


83 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


.Now  Came  a  Eace  for  Life.  Across  the  Madi- 
son and  Randolph  street  bridges  and  through 
the  Washington  street  tunnel  hundreds  fled.  The 
west  bank  of  the  South  branch  was  walled  with 
fire  for  a  mile,  and  it  was  believed  that  the 
flames  would  sweep  along  the  North  branch 
to  the  city  limits,  wiping  out  the  entire  river 
front  of  the  West  division. 

The  courthouse  bell  kept  up  its  solemn  toll- 
ing. It  was  heard  at  intervals  above  the  roar 
of  the  gale,  the  clang  of  the  fire  engines,  the 
whistle  of  tugboats  that  were  darting  about  on 
errands  of  mercy  to  the  big  vessels  in  the  South 
branch,  and  the  confused  cries  that  filled  the 
streets. 

Fascinated  by  the  splendor  of  that  awful  con- 
flagration, a  sea  of  people  watched  it  from 
housetops  on  the  North  and  South  Sides.  No 
one  thought  it  could  possibly  cross  the  river 
even  yet,  although  the  blazing  rigging  of  ves- 
sels could  be  seen,  and  silhouetted  upon  the  glare 
were  groups  of  men  on  the  east  bank  wetting 
down  roofs  and  stamping  out  fire  branda  which 
iell  thick  and  fast. 

It  was  11:30.  The  fire  had  been  burning  some- 
what over  two  hours.  The  wind  veered  a  little 
more  to  the  westward,  turned  raw  and  chill, 
and  increased  its  speed.  Spectators  shivered  in 
their  thin  summer  garments.  The  wall  of  fire 
along  the  west  bank  bent  eastward  on  the  gale 
until  it  almost  arched  the  water.  Far  ahead  of 
the  flames  burning  brands  were  hurled  through 
the  air. 

A  huge  blazing  cornice  was  hurled  across  the 
river  and  fell  on  the  new  $80,000  Parmalee 
stables  at  Jackson  and  Franklin,  and  the  pro- 
prietors, who  had  been  on  guard  for  an  hour, 
fled  for  their  lives.  In  an  instant  the  building 
was  engulfed  in  flames.  A  little  later  a  brand 
shot  like  an  incandescent  meteor  through  a  win- 
dow of  the  Powell  roofing  works  near  the  east 
end  of  the  Adams  street  bridge.  This  building 
was  filled  with  tar  and  felt  and  it  was  flanked 
by  the  gas  works  and  Conley's  Patch,  with  its 
acres  of  frame  tenements. 

The  engines  were  all  at  work  on  the  West 
Side,  but  at  the  call  of  the  courthouse  bell  and 
telegraph  alarm  they  coiled  up  their  hose  and 
cleft  a  way  across  blazing  bridges  and  through 
flying  people  to  meet  and  fight  the  new  peril 
on  the  South  Side. 

Twelve  o'clock  struck!  The  mayor,  Roswell 
B.  Mason,  arrived  at  the  courthouse  to  direct 
the  work  of  trying  to  save  the  city  from  de- 
struction. With  a  shock  like  an  earthquake  the 
huge  reservoir  at  the  gas  works  exploded.  Aa 
if  a  dam  had  broken,  floods  of  flame  fell  across 
the  doomed  city. 

The  Fire  at  Midnight.  With  the  explosion  of 
the  gas  works  reservoir  the  pile  of  bituminous 
coal  in  the  yards  took  fire,  and  Conley's  Patch, 
that  criminal-infested  nest  of  wooden  tenements 
which  filled  the  rest  of  the  block,  was  blazing. 
To  the  crowds  of  refugees  from  the  West  Side 


was  now  added  the  worst  and  most  dangerous 
element  of  Chicago 's  population,  let  loose  to 
prey  on  the  helpless  victims  of  the  great  ca- 
lamity. The  drunkard  impeded  the  progress  of 
the  flying,  the  pickpocket  plied  his  trade  in  the 
indescribable  jam  and  confusion,  the  thief  broke 
into  houses  and  stores  for  loot,  the  brute 
trampled  his  neighbors  under  foot. 

The  gas  works  had  been  destroyed  but  no  gas 
was  needed.  The  flames  supplied  light  for  fran- 
tic work  and  flight.  From  the  solid  mass  of 
fire  three  long  fingers  of  flame  shot  out,  one 
stretching  eastward  along  the  south  side  of 
Monroe  street,  one  northward  among  the  fac- 
tories and  lumber  yards  along  the  east  bank 
of  the  river,  and  between  these  was  a  longer 
and  stronger  one  which  streamed  on  the  gale 
diagonally  across  blocks  northeastward.  To 
those  who  watched  the  fire  from  a  height  on 
the  South  Side,  at  12  o'clock,  it  looked  like  the 


RUINS    OF   THE    COURTHOUSE. 

lurid  foot  and  talons  of  some  enormous  bird 
of  jN^ey  clutching  at  the  vitals  of  the  city. 

In  fifteen  minutes  the  claws  had  widened  and 
lengthened.  The  spaces  between  were  webbed 
with  connecting  fires,  and  long  brands  were 
hurled  ahead  by  the  southwest  gale.  The  air 
was  like  a  furnace,  and  it  was  filled  with  a 
rain  of  fire.  Glowing  cinders  and  sparks  fanned 
to  incandescence  by  the  wind  fell  in  a  torrent 
on  roofs  of  houses  and  on  fleeing  people  a  mile 
in  advance  of  the  flames. 

With  the  speed  of  an  express  train  the  south- 
ern line  of  fire  raced  down  Monroe  street  to 
another  block  of  tenements.  So  quickly  was 
this  inflammable  quarter  engulfed  that  many, 
roused  from  a  midnight  sleep,  must  have  per- 
ished. Scarcely  one  of  the  poor  foreigners  who 
lived  there  escaped  with  more  than  life.  Peo- 


84 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


pie  were  seen  leaping  from  roofs  and  windows. 
Children  were  thrown  down  to  firemen,  who 
tried  to  raise  ladders  through  those  billows  of 
flames. 

One  witness  to  this  awful  scene  has  compared 
the  march  of  the  flames  to  an  army  in  three 
divisions.  The  main  column,  running  diagonal- 
ly from  Adams  and  Franklin  to  State  and  South 
Water,  took  the  strongholds  of  the  city,  one 
after  the  other.  On  either  side  it  was  flanked 
by  columns  which  destroyed  the  demoralized 
remnants  and  devastated  outlying  districts. 
"Single  Uhlans,"  or  lance-armed  cavalry,  skir- 
mished here  and  there,  far  in  front  of  the  solid 
infantry.  Then  small  detachments  cut  off  weak 
outlying  forces.  Hot  battles  were  fought  around 
every  big  business  citadel.  When  these  suc- 
cumbed the  main  body  of  the  fire  marched  up 
and  swept  over  the  field." 

A  Maddened  Babel  of  Sound  rose  from  the 
heart  of  the  city.  The  streets  were  filled  with 
suffocating  crimson  smoke,  shot  with  glittering 
sparks.  Between  the  streets  were  solid  blocks 
of  rustling  flames,  in  which  timbers  could  be 
heard  to  crack,  marble  veneering  to  snap,  and 
lofty  walls  of  brick  and  stone  to  fall  with 
thunderous  reverberations.  Now  and  then  stores 
of  oil  or  chemicals  exploded  with  an  awful 
crash  that  drowned  the  shrieks  of  imprisoned 
people,  the  screaming  of  frightened  horses,  the 
howling  of  dogs,  the  shouts  of  firemen  and  ex- 
pressmen who  raced  their  teams  through  the  jam 
of  pedestrians,  the  panting  of  engines  and  the 
mournful  boom  of  the  great  courthouse  bell  that 
tolled  the  passing  moments  of  Chicago's  life. 

People  were  flying  eastward  to  the  lake  front 
and  northward  across  the  river,  over  the  bridges 
and  through  the  dark  tunnel.  The  vacant  space 
along  the  lake  front  was  crowded  with  refugees 
and  goods  of  every  description.  From  Dearborn 
street  east  and  south  to  Twelfth  street  the  roofs 
of  houses  and  stores  were  covered  with  des- 
perate workers  who,  with  hose  attached  to  hy- 
drants, were  drenching  carpets  and  blankets  and 
putting  out  falling  brands.  It  was  very  early 
seen  that  the  business  district  of  the  South  Side 
west  of  Dearborn  was  doomed.  The  Field  and 
Leiter  building  at  State  and  Washington  streets 
and  other  great  retail  houses  had  steam  pumps, 
which  kept  them  drenched.  Hour  after  hour 
water  laved  the  roofs  and  sides  of  these  white 
marble  structures.  In  the  glare  of  the  fire  they 
looked  like  colossal  fountains  enveloped  in  glit- 
tering spray. 

When  Mayor  Mason  reached  the  courthouse 
shortly  after  12  o'clock  to  direct  the  work  of 
fighting  the  fire  the  flames  were  only  two  blocks 
to  the  southwest,  and  watchmen  in  the  cupola 
were  putting  out  blazing  brands  with  hand 
grenades.  Isolated  buildings  on  Kandolph  and 
Lake,  west  of  Fifth  avenue,  were  burning.  The 
hot  blast  was  tearing  off  signs  and  blowing  over 
sheds.  Awnings  flashed  up  and  vanished. 


Brands,  cinders  and  squares  of  blazing  felt  from 
roofs  sailed  through  the  air  to  spread  destruc- 
tion. 

But  Mayor  Mason  sat  in  his  office  and  tele- 
graphed for  help  to  other  cities;  directed  that 
buildings  should  be  blown  up  along  the  line  of 
the  fire;  gave  the  order  to  release  the  prisoners 
in  the  jail  in  the  basement  of  the  courthouse  and 
to  remove  them  to  the  Chicago  avenue  station; 
started  city  teams  to  the  warehouses  of  the 
Hazard  Powder  Company,  seven  miles  out,  Tor 
explosives.  For  two  hours,  until  the  bell  crashed 
to  the  basement,  and  he  had  to  fly  for  his  life, 
the  mayor  remained  at  his  post. 

Heroes  of  the  Fire.  Chicago  was  full  of  men 
who  considered  duty  first  and  personal  safety 
afterward.  When  it  was  seen  that  the  fire  must 
soon  reach  the  splendid  line  of  banking  and  in- 
surance houses  on  La  Salle  street,  business  men 
and  their  employes  poured  into  the  threatened 
area,  already  like  a  furnace,  from  every  part 
of  the  city.  They  forced  their  way  across  the 
bridges,  through  black  tunnels,  where  the  only 
guide  was  the  constant  cry,  "Keep  to  the 
right,"  and  through  the  indescribable  jam  of 
the  streets.  They  entered  smouldering  bank,  of- 
fice and  store,  placed  valuables  in  vaults,  or,  if 
there  was  no  vault,  emptying  the  contents  of 


MAYOR      ROSWELL 
MASON. 


GEN.  P.   H.  SHERIDAN. 


safes  into  trunks  and  boxes  and  carrying  them 
to  the  streets,  for  glowing  iron  safes  had  been 
seen  to  fall  with  crashing  walls. 

Expressmen  demanded  $10,  $50,  then  $1,000  a 
load.  This  last  price  was  actually  paid  by  a 
banker  who  thus  saved  a  trunk  containing  $600,- 
000  in  greenbacks,  which  he  got  off  safely  to 
Milwaukee. 

By  the  light  of  the  fire  clerks  sorted  the  mail 
in  the  postoffice,  locked  it  in  bags  and  got  it 
over  to  Dearborn  park,  on  the  lake  front.  Print- 
ers set  type  and  locked  up  forms,  determined 
to  get  out  one  more  issue  of  a  paper.  Along 
Wabash  and  Michigan  avenues  homes  were 
emptied  of  elegant  furnishings,  which  were 
dragged  to  the  lake  front. 

Every  instant  the  noise,  heat,  terror,  con- 
fusion and  frightful  jam  in  the  streets  increased. 
Twenty  thousand  people  had  been  made  home- 
less, other  thousands  ruined.  Families  had  be- 


85 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


come  separated,  children  lost  and  the  weak 
trampled  under  foot.  Invalids  were  dying  of 
exposure  to  wind,  heat  and  suffocating  smoke. 
Tumult  and  uproar,  ruin  and  despair,  death  and 
disaster  filled  the  hours  of  sleep. 

Swiftly  the  fire  traveled  with  the  wind.  A 
little  after  2  o'clock  it  crossed  State  street 
bridge  to  ravage  the  North  division.  The  main 
column  made  straight  for  the  courthouse.  The 
right  column  had  turned  at  Dearborn  street, 
baffled  by  the  Government  and  Tribune  build- 
ings, and  had  run  back  to  Van  Buren  and  the 
river. 

The  main  and  left  columns  were  converging 
toward  Madison  and  La  Salle.  Scarcely  twenty 
minutes  elapsed  from  the  burning  of  the  Grand 
Pacific  hotel,  which  then  covered  an  entire 
block,  before  every  intervening  building  on  La 
Salle  was  blazing,  and  the  fire  had  laid  siege 
to  the  half-million-dollar  marble  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  occupied  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  at 
La  Salle  and  Washington. 

Fight  Fire  With  Fire.  Here  at  half  past  1 
o'clock  the  fire  department  blew  up  the  build- 
ing of  the  Merchants'  Insurance  Company.  On 
the  explosion  a  broad  black  chasm  opened.  The 
flames  swung  across  it  like  an  athlete  and  fell 
on  the  banking  and  insurance  houses  beyond. 

The  fire  was  now  behind  the  courthouse  and 
had  reached  its  climax  on  the  South  Side.  A 
hundred  huge  buildings  were  burning  at  once. 
Six-story  stone,  iron  and  brick  structures  were 
consumed  in  five  minutes  by  the  watch.  The 
marble  was  burned  to  lime,  the  stone  fused,  the 
iron  sheathing  ran  molten  and  iron  columns  were 
twisted  into  fantastic  and  glowing  serpents  that 
writhed  in  the  air. 

In  nearly  every  street  the  flames  entered  the 
rear  of  a  row  of  buildings  simultaneously.  In 
five  minutes  the  front  windows  reddened.  An 
instant  later  the  whole  block  was  engulfed  and 
sheets  of  flame  separated  from  the  mass  to  roll 
over  the  next  block. 

At  1:30  a  great  blazing  timber  from  a  La 
Salle  street  block  was  hurled  on  the  wooden 
dome  of  the  stone  courthouse.  Instantly  the 
flames  seemed  to  leap  from  every  window  of 
the  tower.  The  watchmen  were  singed  as  they 
ran  down  the  stairs.  In  the  midst  of  the  flames, 
as  the  walls  burned  away,  the  great  bell,  which 
weighed  half  a  ton  and  measured  seven  feet 
across,  could  be  seen  as  it  continued  to  toll,  for 
it  was  operated  by  machinery,  until  its  supports 
were  destroyed  and  it  crashed  to  the  basement 
at  2:05  a.  m. 

When  Mayor  Mason  reached  the  exit,  five  min- 
utes later,  La  Salle  street  was  one  long  furnace 
for '  a  solid  mile.  Washington  and  Randolph 
were  blazing  from  the  river  to  Clark.  North 
on  Clark  he  raced  with  flame  and  falling  brands 
to  South  Water,  where  he  was  comparatively 
safe.  He  lived  at  Michigan  avenue  and  Twelfth 
street.  How  he  was  to  get  home  was  a  serious 
question.  He  tried  the  tunnel  at  La  Salle,  but 


found  it  filled  with  struggling  humanity  in  dan- 
ger of  suffocation  from  the  smoke.  He  finally 
crossed  the  bridge  at  Wells  street  and  walked 
east  on  Michigan  to  recross  the  river  at  the 
Bush  street  bridge. 

North  Side  residence  streets,  before  the  fire, 
were  shaded  by  great  elm  trees.  Cinders  had 
fallen  among  the  drifted  autumn  leaves  and  lit- 
tle fires  were  skurrying  along  before  the  gale, 
blowing  up  into  alleys  and  between  fence 
pickets.  This  looked  ominous  to  the  mayor,  but 
he  observed  that  the  people  everywhere  were 
putting  out  these  incipient  blazes  and  did  not 
seem  to  be  alarmed,  and  he  hurried  on.  But 
looking  back  from  Rush  street  bridge  he  saw  a 
big  livery  stable  at  the  north  end  of  the  State 
street  bridge  burst  into  flames. 

The  Fire  Had  Crossed  to  the  North  Division! 
It  was  then  about  2:30.  In  the  incredibly  short 
space  of  two  hours  and  a  half  the  fire  had  cut 
a  swath  across  the  city,  from  Adams  and  Frank- 
lin, to  State  and  South  Water,  half  a  mile  wide, 
and  had  crossed  the  river  to  the  North  division. 
Long  before  the  flames  had  worked  eastward 
of  State  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river,  the 
flames  reached  and  destroyed  the  water  works 
at  Chicago  avenue.  Once  the  water  supply  was 
shut  off  the  fire  could  proceed  to  complete  the 
destruction  of  the  city. 

The  character  of  the  buildings  along  the  north 
bank  of  the  river  caused  the  fire  to  attain,  a 
frightful  speed.  North  of  the  bridge  at  State 
street  was  a  wooden  viaduct  on  trestle  work. 
A  long  low  freight  depot  and  train  of  oil  cars 
lay  to  the  west.  To  the  east  was  Wright 's 
livery  stable  with  a  flat  roof  of  tar  and  felt. 
Rows  of  cheap  frame  boarding  houses  lined  the 
cross  streets  and  wooden  sheds  the  alleys.  A 
line  150  yards  long  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
river  was  soon  ablaze.  Within  thirty  minutes 
the  fire  had  reached  Cass  street,  half  a  mile  to 
the  northeast. 

After  crossing  Illinois  street  the  flames  were 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  north  shore  residence 
district,  where  they  progressed  as  fast  as  a 
man  could  run.  Many  business  men  who  had 
been  at  their  offices  on  the  South  Side  ran  on 
the  first  alarm,  but  reached  their  homes  only 
to  find  them  ablaze  and  their  families  gone 
into  the  wild  night  of  terror,  where  none  were 
to  find  shelter  and  few  safety. 

Here  in  this  district  were  picket  fences,  board 
walks,  shrubbery  and  shade  trees,  dry  and  leaf- 
less, stables,  conservatories  and  houses  with 
large  light  verandas,  balconies,  bays  and  cupo- 
las. It  was  touch  and  go  with  fire,  with  such 
decorative  material  and  spacious  ways  for  the 
wind  to  revel  in.  Those  who  prepared  to  fly 
as  soon  as  the  fire  crossed  the  river  were  able 
to  get  out  their  horses  and  carriages,  bury  some 
silver  and  precious  articles,  and  escape  with 
the  family  pictures  and  a  trunk  full  of  cloth- 
ing to  the  West  Side. 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Few  did  this,  however.  Far  too  many  were 
possessed  by  the  fatal  delusion  that  their  homes 
could  not  burn.  Women  and  children  were  sent 
on  ahead  while  the  men  remained  behind  to  try 


THE   KEKFOOT   BLOCK. 

First   building   erected  after   the   fire. 

to  save  the  house  or  furniture.  In  this  way 
families  became  separated,  for  those  left  be- 
hind were  compelled  to  fly  to  the  strip  of  va- 
cant ground  on  the  lake  shore,  while  the  fire 
drove  the  ones  sent  on  from  their  latest  refuge. 

The  Home  Guard.  A  typical  instance  of  the 
heroic  efforts  made  to  save  many  of  the  rich 
and  beautiful  homes  of  the  North  Side  is  that 
made  by  Dr.  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  His  home  occu- 
pied the  entire  block  bounded  by  Erie,  Huron, 
Pine  (now  Lincoln  Park  boulevard)  and  Rush. 
The  grounds  were  filled  with  beautiful  shrub- 
bery and  were  shaded  by  tall  elm  trees.  A  dense 
hedge  of  lilacs  gave  seclusion  to  the  place.  Wild 
grapes,  Virginia  creepers  and  bittersweet  draped 
the  spacious  verandas.  There  were  stables  and 
greenhouses,  and  a  fountain  capped  by  the  pre- 
historic Waubansia  stone  with  its  carved  Indian 
face. 

Here  this  ex-congressman  and  man  of  wealth, 
leisure  and  culture,  the  friend  and  biographer  of 
Lincoln,  lived  in  a  home  enriched  by  a  well- 
stocked  library,  fine  pictures  and  the  accumu- 
lated souvenirs  of  travel.  He  determined  to  save 
it  if  he  could.  He  sent  his  wife  and  little  girl 
northward  to  the  home  of  a  married  daughter, 
which  was  also  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours 
to  be  overtaken  by  the  flames.  With  two  other 
daughters  and  a  son — all  school  children — and 


the  servants  he  remained  to  fight  the  fire. 

Carpets,  hangings  and  blankets  were  spread 
over  roofs  and  verandas  and  for  two  hours  that 
gallant  little  band  put  out  with  water  from  two 
hydrants  every  blaze  that  started.  The  contest 
grew  hotter  as  the  flames  swept  past  on  their 
way  to  the  water  works.  There  was  a  sea  .of 
fire  to  the  south  and  west.  Then  it  appeared 
on  the  north.  A  torrent  of  cinders,  sparks  and 
brands  fell  over  them.  Twenty  times  blazes 
started  on  the  roof,  the  verandas,  the  barn,  in 
the  trees,  and  among  the  drifted  leaves  on  the 
lawn. 

The  burning  of  the  water  works  shut  off  the 
r'ipply  of  water.  Only  then,  with  fire  starting 


RUINS    OF    FIELD    &    LETTER    BUILDING. 

in  a  dozen  places,  did  Dr.  Arnold  gather  his 
little  garrison  about  him  and  plan  how  to  cut 
their  way  out.  There  was  only  one  avenue  of 
escape  open  and  that  was  toward  the  Jake. 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 


The  Ruined  City. 
(October  9  to  15,  1871.) 

The  fire,  in  cutting  diagonally  across  from 
the  State  street  bridge  to  Chicago  avenue  and 
the  lake,  forced  refugees  into  a  vacant  space 
between  Illinois  and  Superior,  east  of  St.  Glair. 
There  were  just  forty  acres  in  this  tract,  which 
was  known  locally  as  "The  Sands."  To  the 
north  of  it  were  Lill  's  enormous  brewery  and  the 
water  works — both  to  be  in  flames  shortly  after 
3  o'clock  a,  m.  Westward  were  blocks  of  blaz- 
ing houses.  To  the  south  lay  acres  of  planing 
mills  and  lumber  yards  along  the  north  bank 
of  the  river. 

The  Purgatory  on  "The  Sands."  "The 
Sands"  were  to  be  surrounded  on  al!  sides 
but  one  by  fire.  The  whole  forty  acres  very 
early  became  an  inconceivable  jam  of  human 
beings,  animals,  trunks,  boxes,  household  furni- 
ture, and  the  contents  of  stores.  Houses  of 
wealth  and  of  poverty  and  haunts  of  ignorance 
and  vice  were  emptied  on  "The  Sands"  to  share 
the  horrors  of  the  inferno. 

From  the  first  the  air  was  like  a  blast  from 
a  furnace  and  thick  with  suffocating  smoke. 
Torrents  of  sparks  and  cinders  rained  down. 
The  throngs,  maddened  by  suffering  and  despair, 
took  refuge  in  the  water,  mothers  covering  the 
heads  of  children  with  wet  handkerchiefs. 
Fathers  buried  their  wives  and  children  in  the 
wet  sand  along  the  shores,  leaving  openings  for 
breathing  and  keeping  the  mounds  drenched. 
They  stood  themselves  up  to  the  neck  in  the 
cold  lake  with  w.«t  coats  over  their  heads  and 
their  backs  to  the  fire. 

Hour  after  hour  thousands  stood  under  that 
storm  of  fire.  They  saw  the  water  works  burn 
and  knew  the  whole  north  shore  was  doomed  to 
destruction,  as  the  flames  raced  up  the  lake 
shore  to  the  cemeteries  and  to  Lincoln  park, 
which  were  also  filled  with  refugees  from  far- 
ther north. 

While  the  heat  on  "The  Sands"  was  still  ter- 
rific fram  the  fire  to  the  west  and  north,  the 
lumber  piles,  planing  mills,  and  elevators  along 
the  river  to  the  south  began  to  burn.  Every- 
body on  that  gridiron  of  sand,  covered  with 
bonfires  of  household  goods,  rushed  into  the 
lake.  All  stood  up  to  the  neck  in  the  water  and 
dipped  their  heads  under  to  cool  them.  Infants 
and  invalids  died  of  suffocation.  From  5  o'clock 
to  10  in  the  morning  they  stood  there.  Then 
they  staggered  up  the  beach  and  dragged  them- 


selves to  the  shelter  of  a  stone  wall  that  ran 
eastward  along  Superior  street  to  the  lake.  The 
heat  there  was  great  enough  to  dry  clothing. 
Some  when  dry  caught  fire.  Many  were  nearly 
blind  from  the  heat  and  smoke.  Scarcely  one 
had  not  lost  some  loved  one  as  well  as  home 
and  property.  They  were  all  to  live  until  night- 
fall, many  until  another  daybreak,  before  they 
could  seek  food  or  shelter. 

Early  in  the  dawn  the  refugees  on  ' '  The 
Sands,"  in  Lincoln  park,  on  the  prairies  to  the 
west,  and  the  lake  front  on  the  South  Side, 
heard  explosions  from  the  south.  No  one  knew 
their  meaning,  but  the  whole  lake  shore  district 
south  of  the  river  seemed  to  be  in  flames.  The 
fire,  spreading  from  the  river  bank,  down  which 
it  had  eaten  slowly,  gained  new  strength  among 
the  elevators  and  big  warehouses  around  the 
Illinois  Central  depot. 

Fire  Begins  Again  on  South  Side.  The  fire 
was  then  to  the  north  and  east  of  Field  and 
Leiter's  big  retail  store  on  State  and  Washing- 
ton. Up  to  this  time  Michigan,  Wabash  and 
State  streets  had  escaped  the  flames  except 
along  the  river  bank,  and  the  Tribune  block 
at  Dearborn  and  Madison  had  successfully  stood 
three  assaults  and  prevented  the  fire  from  pro- 
gressing north  or  east  of  that  point. 

Field  and  Leiter's  was  the  key  to  the  retail 
district  of  State  street,  and  as  the  elevators  and 
depot  of  the  Illinois  Central  at  Randolph  caught 
fire  efforts  were  redoubled  around  the  white 
marble  dry  goods  palace.  The  fire  engines  could 
do  nothing,  for  there  was  now  no  water  in  the 
mains,  but  the  steam  pumps  of  the  building 
brought  up  water  directly  from  the  lake  and 
kept  the  block  drenched.  Just  at  dawn  a  blaz- 
ing section  of  a  roof  was  dropped  on  the  pump- 
ing works,  disabling  them. 

Destruction  of  Business  Center  Completed. 
Despair  seized  the  hearts  of  the  refugees  on  the 
lake  front  as  the  noble  edifice  was  wrapped  in 
flames.  Wild  with  terror,  they  abandoned  treas- 
ures they  had  guarded  all  that  terrible  night 
and  fled  southward  before  the  flames  should 
overtake  them.  As  if  it  could  not  come  on  fast 
enough,  it  was  reinforced  by  a  new  fire  in  Dear- 
born street. 

At  Dearborn  and  Jackson  the  flames  had 
burned  down  to  embers.  The  engines,  standing 
about  in  the  streets,  could  have  pnt  these  out 
had  there  been  any  water  in  the  mains.  At*  7 
o'clock  in  the  morning  a  sudden  gust  of  wind 


88 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


fanned  these  embers  to  white  heat  and  then 
hurled  them  upon  housetops  along  Dearborn  and 
Monroe.  The  seven-story  Palmer  house  was 
soon  in  flames.  The  fire  ran  rapidly  northward 
to  McVicker's  theater,  on  Madison.  The  iron 
shutters  of  the  Tribune  building,  already  sprung 
by  the  heat,  gave  way.  When  the  flames  gained 
entrance  the  superheated  air  seemed  to  explode. 
Having  wiped  everything  out  on  Dearborn 
street,  this  fire  joined  forces  with  the  other  on 
State  street.  In  a  kind  of  despair,  stores  and 
residences  were  emptied  of  their  contents  into 
Dearborn  park  and  upon  the  lake  front.  Own- 
ers stood  by  in  dull  apathy  and  saw  their  do- 
mestic and  business  homes  vanish  in  flames. 
The  fire  was  working  southward  against  the 
wind,  and  progressing  slowly,  but  below  Harri- 
son street  were  acres  of  pine  cottages  and  tene- 
ments. With  a  400-mile-long  reservoir  of  water 
at  her  feet  Chicago  was  helpless!  Fatigue,  ter- 
ror, despair,  ruin,  and  the  reign  of  lawlessness, 


a  crimson  ball  through  the  pall  of  smoke  which 
hung  over  the  lake.  As  the  wind  freshened  the 
tumult  increased  on  the  shore.  Islands  of  fire 
still  rose  out  of  that  sea  of  ruins  to  north  and 
west.  By  noon  the  fire  on  the  South  Side  had 
burned  itself  out,  but  there  was  no  escape  to 
the  west  across  those  smouldering  blocks  except 
by  making  a  long  detour  to  the  Twelfth  street 
bridge. 

On  the  North  Side,  after  following  along  the 
shore  to  Lincoln  park  and  the  cemeteries,  where 
thousands  had  found  refuge,  the  fire  had  seem- 
ingly burned  itself  out.  It  was  10  o'clock  Mon- 
day morning  when  a  fresh  fire  broke  out  at 
Dearborn  and  Ontario  from  scattered  embers  of 
buildings  that  had  been  destroyed  six  hours  be- 
fore. 

Burning  of  the  North  Division.  Running 
straight  up  Dearborn  this  fire  quickly  swept 
away  what  remained  of  the  fine  residence  dis- 
trict, sent  refugees  flying  from  Washington 


(Copyright,  Geo.  J.  Klein.) 

HEART    OF    CHICAGO    AFTER    THE    FIRE. 

Looking  North  Up  Dearborn  and  Clark  Streets  from  Harrison. 


which  ran  on  unchecked,  aroused  in  the  homeless 
people  a  kind  of  madness.  The  throngs  swarm- 
ing in  Michigan  avenue,  south  of  the  fire,  strug- 
gled for  air,  space,  safety.  But  so  closely  were 
fugitives  massed  together  that  to  progress  one 
block  required  half  an  hour. 

Sheridan  to  the  Rescue.  It  was  then  that 
General  Sheridan,  having  got  a  supply  of  pow- 
der, began  to  blow  up  buildings  in  Harrison  and 
Congress  streets.  The  gorge  of  humanity  in 
Michigan  avenue  stopped  in  horror  when  the 
first  detonation  came  up  from  the  south,  until 
policemen  checked  the  panic  by  shouting  the 
good  news  that  powder  was  being  used  to  stop 
the  flames. 

When  the  morning  sun  came  up  it  looked  like 


square,  the  churches  and  spacious  homes,  and 
started  bonfires  in  the  piles  of  household  goods 
in  the  cemeteries  and  Lincoln  park.  Then  it 
burned  up  Clark  and  La  Salle  and  was  soon  in 
the  thickly  tenanted  district  which  bordered  the 
lumber  yards  and  factories  along  the  North 
branch. 

The  harrowing  scenes  of  the  night  before 
were  repeated  and  multiplied,  for  practically  the 
entire  North  division  was  to  burn  out  by  night- 
fall. Flight  was  eastward,  as  well  as  west 
and  north,  for  the  lake  shore  district  had  been 
destroyed  and  fire  could  no  longer  pursue  there. 
But  the  greatest  number  tried  to  reach  the 
West  Side  over  Chicago  avenue.  In  thirty  min- 
utes that  wide  thoroughfare  was  gorged  with 


89 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


human  beings,  vehicles  and  loads  of  goods.  But 
the  flames  approached  and  Chicago  avenue  was 
emptied.  The  refugees  now  fled  to  Division 
street,  where  there  was  soon  a  frightful  jam. 

Division  street,  too,  became  impassable  and 
the  scene  was  repeated  in  North  avenue.  On 
the  West  Side  many  refugees  found  shelter  in 
the  cars  of  the  Northwestern  Eailway  company 
that  had  been  rolled  to  the  outlying  switches 
for  safety.  Many  camped  on  the  prairie  and 
sat  there,  shelterless,  hungry,  and  thirsty,  gaz- 
ing across  the  river  at  the  acres  of  flames  that 
were  sweeping  to  the  city  limits.  Other  thou- 
sands were  in  the  woods  of  Lake  View,  far 
beyond  the  last  straggling  house  of  the  city. 

Perilous  Journey  Up  the  River.  About  4 
o'clock  Monday  afternoon,  Dr.  Isaac  N.  Arnold, 
who,  with  his  children  and  servants,  had  de- 
fended his  beautiful  home  so  valiantly,  went  on 
a  tugboat  up  the  river  through  the  burned  dis- 
trict. He  had  escaped  with  his  children  from 
that  purgatory  on  "The  Sands"  in  a  rowboat, 
which  he  found  tied  to  Mr.  Ogden 's  private  pier, 
to  the  lighthouse  at  the  end  of  the  government 
pier.  In  the  midst  of  the  water,  far  out  in  the 
harbor,  the  little  company  in  the  lighthouse  had 
fought  fire  on  the  pier  when  the  elevators  and 
Illinois  Central  depot  burned. 

At  4  o'clock  Monday  afternoon,  Dr.  Arnold 
chartered  a  tugboat  to  go  up  through  the  burned 
district,  so  he  could  search  for  his  wife  and 
little  girl.  All  the  bridges  had  been  burned 
to  the  forks,  and  their  twisted  wrecks  had  fallen 
in  the  river.  Warehouses,  stores,  docks,  ele- 
vators and  lumber  yards  were  still  burning 
along  both  banks  of  the  main  stream.  With  the 
women  and  children  shut  up  in  the  little  deck 
house,  the  men  lying  on  their  faces,  and  with 
hose  drenching  her  deck  and  sides,  the  tug 
steamed  up  to  the  forks  of  the  river.  It  picked 
its  way  through  the  debris  of  bridges  and  shot 
past  hot  and  crumbling  walls,  from  which 
loosened  bricks  fell  hissing  into  the  water. 
After  a  perilous  half  hour  the  passengers  were 
landed  on  the  west  side. 

This  family  had  been  fifteen  hours  without 
shelter  and  twenty-six  without  food.  Another 
twenty-four  hours  was  to  pass  before  Mrs.  Ar- 
nold and  the  little  girl  were  to  be  found  safe 
in  a  West  side  suburb.  It  was  but  a  typical 
experience  of  a  family  in  the  Great  Chicago 
Fire.  Happy  was  the  family  that  could  gather 
all  its  loved  ones  about  a  new  hearth  in  the 
humblest  home. 

The  civilized  world  stood  aghast,  appalled  by 
the  figures  presented  by  this  most  destructive 
fire  of  modern  times.  A  total  of  2,124  acres,  or 
three  and  one-half  square  miles,  had  been  burned 
over,  18,000  buildings  destroyed,  100,000  people 
made  homeless  and  nearly  $200,000,000  in  prop- 
erty wiped  out.  The  total  loss  of  life  was  esti- 
mated at  250,  but  numbers  in  poor  foreign  and 
in  the  criminal  quarters  must  also  have  perished. 

The  gale  had  acted  like  a  blow  pipe  in  a  fur- 


nace, creating  inflammable  gases  that  filled 
buildings  and  caused  them  literally  to  explode 
and  melt  as  soon  as  the  flames  touched  them. 
The  fire  had  thus  extended  at  the  rate  of  sixty- 
five  acres  an  hour,  and  at  its  height,  when  in 
the  heart  of  the  city,  destroyed  property  at  the 
rate  of  $100,000  a  minute.  The  fires  of  London 
and  Moscow  were  eclipsed.  The  burning  of 
Rome  in  Nero 's  time  was  the  only  historic  fire 
comparable  to  it. 

The  area  burned  over  had  been  equalled  in 
other  fires,  but  never  till  then  had  the  very 
heart  of  a  city  been  stopped  in  its  beating.  On 
the  West  side  were  still  homes  for  two-thirds  of 
the  people,  and  there  were  railroads,  factories, 
retail  stores,  churches,  schools,  elevators,  and 
a  few  lumber  and  coal  yards.  But  there  were 
no  banks,  hotels,  depots,  newspaper  offices,  in- 
surance company  offices,  or  public  buildings. 
Even  the  evidence  of  ownership  of  real  estate 
had  been  destroyed  in  the  courthouse  records, 
and  money  on  deposit  in  the  banks,  it  was 
thought,  must  all  have  been  destroyed.  The 
capital  of  insurance  companies  had  in  many  in- 
stances vanished  in  the  flames.  Chicago  seemed 
paralyzed  by  a  blow  on  her  heart. 

Fire  Makes  Clean  Sweep. — In  the  entire  burned 
district  only  four  buildings  remained  standing. 
The  Lind  block  at  Lake  and  Market  on  the 
river  bank  escaped  because  it  was  comparative- 
ly isolated.  The  Hixon  block  at  La  Salle  and 
Monroe  was  an  unfinished  structure  of  stone  and 
brick,  and  had  not  roof  or  wood  work  in  it  to 
ignite,  or  closed  spaces  in  which  gas  could  ac- 
cumulate. In  the  North  division  a  small  cottage 
on  Lincoln  place  was  saved  by  its  owner,  and 
the  house  of  Mahon  D.  Ogden,  which  stood  on 
the  site  of  the  Newberry  library  of  today,  fac- 
ing Washington  square,  was  preserved  by  its 
park  frontage,  and  by  just  such  heroic  measures 
as  had  failed  to  save  the  Arnold  house. 

Except  for  some  poor  shanties  near  the  bridges, 
the  cottage,  the  Ogden  house,  and  a  conservatory 
on  the  McGagg  grounds,  not  a  building  was  left 
in  the  North  division  in  a  space  three  miles  long. 
A  few  scattered  ruins  of  churches  and  ranks  of 
leafless  trees  stood  stark  above  the  general  level, 
but  the  entire  division  had  the  appearance  of  the 
original  prairie  after  a  fire  has  burned  dff  the 
grass.  Sidewalks,  fences,  and  shrubbery  had 
disappeared.  The  streets  looked  like  embank- 
ments across  the  flats.  Thirty-six  hours  before, 
75,000  people  had  lived  on  this  desolate  waste. 
Chimneys  and  brick  work  had  tumbled  into  base- 
ment excavations,  filling  them  up  to  the  level 
of  the  prairie. 

Spectators  View  the  Ruins. — On  the  14th  of 
October,  a  week  after  the  fire,  a  heavy  rain 
storm  set  in.  Some  of  the  more  picturesque  and 
dangerous  ruins  in  the  heart  of  the  city  wero 
blown  down.  Sunday  was  bright  and  cool.  A 
week  had  p'assed;  the  homeless  had  been  shelter- 
ed and  fed,  families  united,  order  restored,  money 


90 


THE    STOKY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


had  been  found  safe  in  bank  vaults,  a  good  half 
of  the  insurance  would  be  paid.  Already  Chi- 
v-'jigo  had  taken  heart  of  grace.  Its  people  could 
come  and  look  upon  the  devastation  wrought  by 
the  fire.  Until  long  after  nightfall  the  crowds 
filed  through  nameless  streets  that  were  lit  up 
only  by  the  light  of  the  moon.  The  ruins,  black- 
ened by  smoke  and  washed  by  rain,  had  a  look 
as  of  hoary  age. 

"A  Heart  for  Any  Fate." — But  the  word 
finis  had  not  been  written  to  the  history  of 
Chicago.  Instead  a  new  chapter  was  begun, 
with  such  faith,  courage,  and  energy  as  to  amaze 
the  world,  which  not  only  looked  on  and  ap- 
plauded but  lent  a  helping  hand.  The  fire  was 
a  shock  that  seemed  to  galvanize  Chicago's 
citizens  into  action  rather  than  to  stun  them. 

How  bereft  and  ruined  men  could  think  and 
plan  and  work  systematically  and  effectively, 
during  the  first  chaotic  days  following  the  great 
calamity,  was  a  marvel  such  as  the  world  has 
never  witnessed  since.  But  having  witnessed  it, 
it  knows  what  civilization  stands  for.  Cen- 
turies of  mental  and  moral  training  had  fitted 
the  people  of  Chicago  to  meet  the  emergency. 
All  through  the  horrors  of  Sunday  night  there 
were  cool  heads,  courageous  hearts,  devotion  to 
duty,  and  self-sacrifice  standing  out  clearly  and 
to  some  degree  controlling  that  brief  carnival  of 
suffering,  madness,  and  wild  disorder. 

On  Monday,  while  the  fire  was  still  burning, 
these  same  men  turned,  with  more  than  their 
old-time  vigor,  to  the  pressing  work  at  hand. 
They  fed,  sheltered,  and  protected  Chicago's 
100,000  homeless  people,  and  they  resumed  busi- 
ness, thus  giving  work  and  renewed  hope  to  the 
destitute. 

Mayor  Mason's  home  at  Michigan  avenue  and 
Twelfth  street  was  not  to  be  destroyed,  but  he 
did  not  know  that.  When  the  fire  broke  out 
afresh  at  Dearborn  and  State  streets  at  seven 
o'clock  Monday  morning,  he  sent  his  family  to  a 
southern  suburb  and  organized  a  police  force  to 
keep  the  jam  of  people  in  Michigan  avenue 
moving  southward  without  haste  or  panic.  He, 
himself,  worked  with  General  Sheridan  in  direct- 
ing the  blowing  up  of  buildings  in  Harrison  and 
Congress  streets. 

It  was  here,  with  the  fire  checked  on  the  South 
side,  that  he  was  found  by  a  messenger  at  noon. 
He  had  been  on  duty  since  midnight,  but  he 
went  at  once  to  preside  over  a  meeting  of  the 
city  council  to  be  held  in  the  Congregational 
church  at  Washington  and  Ann  streets  on  the 
West  side. 

Relief  for  Refugees. — As  early  as  eight  o  'clock 
in  the  morning  two  members  of  the  council  had 
secured  an  open  buggy  and  made  a  tour  along 
the  edge  of  the  burned  district.  From  the  lake 
shore  at  Twelfth  street,  they  drove  west  to 
Halsted  and  then  north.  The  entire  southern 
and  western  line  of  the  fire  and  far  out  on  the 
prairie  was  covered  with  an  indescribable  mass 


of  people,  camping  beside  what  goods  they  had 
saved.  Children  had  already  begun  to  cry  from 
hunger  and  thirst,  and  their  parents  were  dazed 
and  distracted  by  the  calamity.  There  were 
thousands  of  invalids,  injured  and  temporarily 
insane  people,  and  lost  children  who  must  be 
cared  for  immediately. 

But  it  was  along  the  North  branch,  west  of 
the  acres  of  flames  that  were  sweeping  to  the 
city  limits,  and  northward  in  the  woods  of  Lake 
View  that  the  numbers  of  people  and  their 
sufferings  were  most  appalling.  Seventy-five 
thousand  had  lived  in  the  North  division,  which 
was  utterly  destroyed  by  nightfall. 

All  day  long  refugees  swarmed  across  the 
remaining  bridges  and  swelled  the  numbers  on 
the  prairie.  The  fate  of  other  thousands  on 
"The  Sands,"  in  Lincoln  Park  and  the  lake 
shore  cemeteries  could  not  be  learned  until  the 
fire  died  out  at  Fullerton  avenue.  But  it  was 
known  that  many  who  could  be  reached  must 
perish  within  twenty-four  hours  if  relief  were 
not  brought. 

The  mere  enumeration  of  things  done  officially 
that  Monday  afternoon,  while  the  fire  was  still 
raging,  to  relieve  suffering,  restore  order,  and 
insure  the  safety  of  property,  takes  the  breath. 

Chicago  Knows  What  to  Do  and  Does  It.— 
The  Congregational  church  became  the  mayor's 
office,  the  council  chamber,  and  the  headquarters 
for  police  and  relief  work.  Until  pumps  could 
get  water  into  the  mains  again,  the  lighting  of 
fires  and  lamps  was  forbidden.  A  volunteer 
guard  was  organized  to  patrol  the  streets  to 
enforce  this  order  and  to  see  that  saloons  were 
not  opened.  Then  5,000  special  policemen  were 
sworn  in  to  work  among  the  refugees  and  to 
distribute  relief.  One  proud  boy,  who  had  a 
printing  press  in  a  barn  near  the  church,  ran 
off  the  police  badges  on  strips  of  muslin.  So- 
ciety belles  fed  the  press  and  inked  the  rollers. 

Green  Street  church  was  turned  into  a  huge 
kitchen  for  the  boiling  of  coffee.  The  bakeries 
were  ordered  to  deliver  all  the  bread  in  stock 
to  the  city  relief  authorities.  Every  wagon  and 
driver  that  could  be  captured  was  impressed  into 
the  service  of  the  city.  Some  were  sent  out 
to  bring  in  the  injured  and  lost  children,  while 
others  distributed  bread,  coffee,  and  water. 
Private  houses  were  thrown  wide  open  to  shelter 
the  homeless;  churches,  schoolhouses,  and  the 
boat  houses  in  the  West  side  parks  were  turned 
into  hospitals. 

By  two  o'clock  news  of  the  relief  plans  had 
spread  everywhere  and  helpers  came  in — preach- 
ers without  churches,  merchants  without  busi- 
ness houses,  ladies  without  homes,  teachers  with- 
out schools,  doctors  without  offices.  The  rail- 
road companies  offered  free  transportation  to 
those  with  friends  in  other  places  who  could 
care  for  them.  Most  of  the  depots  had  been 
burned,  and  men,  women,  and  children  in  scanty 
garb,  and  covered  with  ashes  and  soot,  con- 


91 


gregated  at  improvised  prairie  stations,  where 
bread  and  coffee  booths  had  been  set  up.  Ee- 
freshed  and  cheered,  they  boarded  the  trains. 
Fifteen  thousand  people  thus  left  Chicago  Mon- 
day night,  while  the  sky  above  the  North  divi- 
sion was  still  red  with  the  reflection  of  blazing 
lumber  yards  and  coal  piles. 

By  four  o'clock  telegrams  offering  supplies 
began  to  come  in.  At  six,  the  first  relief  trains 
arrived.  Every  village  and  city  within  a  radius 
of  seventy-five  miles  sent  help  that  first  night. 

Fire  Bandied  World-Wide  Sympathy. — All  over 
the  world  people  had  picked  up  their  news- 
papers at  the  breakfast  table  to  read:  "Chicago 
is  burning  up. ' '  Within  ten  hours  carloads  of 
cooked  food  were  in  Chicago,  and  whole  train- 
loads  of  food,  clothing,  medicine,  money,  shelter 
tents,  troops,  and  fire  engines  were  to  arrive 
before  dawn  Tuesday  morning.  Every  hour  the 
circle  of  sympathy  widened  until  it  reached  the 
shores  of  foreign  lands.  Individuals,  societies, 
churches,  cities,  governments  poured  in  contribu- 


tions. The  outpouring  of  supplies  and  money 
was  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
In  all,  there  were  $5,000,000  in  money  and  goods 
sent  to  Chicago  within  a  few  weeks.  It  seemed 
as  if  every  spark  of  that  terrible  storm  of  fire 
had  kindled  sympathy  and  generosity  in  some 
human  breast. 

All  night  long,  and  for  another  forty-eight 
hours,  relief  was  kept  up  from  the  churches.  A 
lost-and-found  committee  with  2,000  private  ve- 
hicles rapidly  united  the  scattered  members  of 
families. ,  Army  tents  were  put  up.  Eailroad 
locomotives  were  furnishing  power  to  factory 
pumps,  and  water  was  got  into  the  mains. 
Small  frame  cottages  were  being  erected  out 
of  the  relief  funds  to  shelter  the  poor  for  the 
winter.  Wages  were  being  paid  to  working  men. 
By  the  end  of  the  first  week  the  emergency  was 
over,  and  the  relief  work  was  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  Eelief  and  Aid  Society.  Chicago  could 
then  consider  how  she  was  to  begin  over  again 
to  restore  the  lost  labor  of  thirty  years. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


The  Phoenix  City. 
(1871  to  1893.) 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  rebuilding  of  Chicago 
had  begun  again  before  it  was  known  whether 
any  insurance  would  be  paid,  or  any  money  in 
banks  and  vaults  had  escaped  destruction,  or 
title  to  real  estate  could  be  re-established.  All 
the  records  covering  every  inch  of  real  estate  in 
Chicago  and  Cook  county  had  been  burned  up 
with  the  tax  lists,  in  the  courthouse  and  city 
hall,  thus  destroying  evidence  of  ownership  and 
the  public  revenues  at  one  blow,  for,  until  titles 
to  property  could  again  be  made  a  matter  of 
record,  tax  levies  could  not  be  collected.  This 
double  blow,  it  would  seem,  was  enough  to 
paralyze  business. 

Victory  Out  of  Defeat. — Do  you  remember  that 
earlier  in  this  history  LaSalle,  the  "undespair- 
ing  Norman,"  was  spoken  of  as  the  prototype  of 
Chicago  spirit?  When  utter  disaster  threatened 
his  work  of  years  and  his  future  plans,  he  did 
not  admit  himself  defeated.  Necessity  bred  in 
him  new  energy.  He  dared  any  combination  of 
mischance  and  malice  to  work  his  ruin. 

Chicago  was  undaunted  by  its  unparalleled 
disaster.  At  noon,  Monday,  a  man  was  seen  to 
pick  up  and  drop  bricks  from  a  heap  of  smould- 
ering debris  in  Dearborn  street.  When  asked 
by  a  policeman  what  he  was  doing  in  that  dan- 
gerous neighborhood,  he  replied  that  he  was  test- 
ing the  bricks  to  see  how  soon  they  would  be 
eool  enough  to  begin  rebuilding. 

Such  stories  as  this  were  telegraphed  all  over 
the  country.  Many  visitors  rushed  to  Chicago, 


under  the  impression  that,  if  they  delayed  a 
week,  they  would  not  see  the  ruins.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  within  less  than  three  years  every 
trace  of  the  great  calamity  had  vanished,  and 
there  had  risen  a  greater  city  on  the  ruins.  To 
appreciate  what  this  means,  it  may  be  recalled 
that  London  required  thirty  years  for  its  rebuild- 
ing after  the  great  fire  of  1666. 

The  newspapers  of  Chicago  did  not  waste  an 
hour  in  resuming  business.  When  McVicker's 
theater  took  fire  the  staff  and  the  printers  of 
The  Tribune  company  fled.  Before  noon,  Mr. 
Medill  had  bought  a  small  job  office  at  15 
Canal  street.  Printers  were  soon  at  the  eases 
and  reporters  were  out  getting  up  an  account 
of  the  fire  that  had  still  many  hours  to  burn. 
The  business  manager  borrowed  money  of  friends 
to  buy  four  heating  stoves.  The  night  before 
the  Tribune's  check  would  have  been  good  for 
$100,000.  On  Monday,  credit  was  refused  for 
$64.  Business  was  thus  suddenly  brought  down 
to  the  most  primitive  cash  basis. 

Between  three  and  four  in  the  afternoon  peo- 
ple began  to  drop  in  with  advertisements  for 
lost  friends,  and  a  little  money  was  taken  in 
over  a  dry-goods  box  counter.  On  Wednesday 
morning  the  Tribune  was  out  with  a  five-column 
account  of  the  fire,  and  a  ringing  editorial  on 
"Chicago  must  and  shall  be  rebuilt." 

How  Business  Sprang  From  the  Ashes. — The 
very  first  place  of  business  erected  amid  the 
ruins  was  put  up  by  Mr.  William  D.  Kerfoot, 
the  well-known  real  estate  man.  He  lost  every 
dollar  by  the  fire,  yet  on  Tuesday  he  put  up  a 


QO 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT, 


12x16  shanty  of  rough  lumber,  in  front  of  his 
old  block  on  Washington,  between  Dearborn  and 
Clark  streets.  A  signboard  across  the  top  was 
labelled,  "Kerfoot  Block." 

The  building  stood  on  the  sidewalk  for  ten 
days,  when,  the  ruins  having  cooled,  the  pro- 
prietor was  required  to  move  it  back  to  the 
building  line.  Mr.  Kerfoot's  enterprise  and 
pluck  revived  courage  in  more  fearful  souls.  His 
office  became  a  sort  of  bureau  of  general  in- 
formation. 

There  was  no  lack  of  business  even  before  the 
fire  had  stopped  burning.  Cars  laden  with  coal, 
grain,  lumber,  and  live  stock  and  vessels  with 
iron  ore  and  merchandise  arrived  in  their  usual 
numbers  on  Monday,  although  all  of  them  could 
not  discharge  their  cargoes.  Only  five  of  the 
seventeen  elevators  had  been  burned;  the  West 
side  had  lost  only  a  few  yards,  factories,  and 
mills,  while  the  stock  yards  were  far  outside  the 
burned  district.  The  lake  was  here  and  the 
railroads.  Traffic  could  not  well  be  diverted  to 
other  points  for  lack  of  facilities.  And  there 
were  300,000  people  here,  trained  in  all  the  com- 
plicated business  of  the  place.  The  forests, 
farms,  and  mines  were  to  continue  to  send  their 
contributions  to  trade,  and  the  country,  east  and 
west,  was  waiting  for  orders  to  be  filled.  Busi- 
ness fairly  trod  on  men's  hee'ls.  Nothing  was 
lacking  but  the  machinery  to  handle  it.  It  was 
amazing  what  makeshifts  were  used  to  serve  the 
purpose  temporarily. 

Legislation  to  the  Rescue. — The  state  legisla- 
ture met  and  passed  the  Burned-Record  law, 
which  permitted  the  recording  of  private  deeds 
and  abstracts  of  title.  Nearly  $3,000,000  were 
donated  the  city  from  the  state  treasury  to  save 
Chicago  from  civic  bankruptcy.  The  fire  and 
police  forces  were  maintained,  the  interest  on 
bonds  paid,  and  the  work  of  repairing  water- 
works and  rebuilding  bridges  and  a  city  hall 
was  begun.  The  bank  vaults  were  opened  and 
money  and  securities  found  intact,  so  that  with- 
in ten  days  the  banks  resumed  payment.  Only 
fifty-seven  out  of  341  insurance  companies  failed 
because  of  the  fire,  and  $46,000,000  out  of  the 
total  $88,000,000  insurance  carried  was  paid. 
With  this  as  a  nucleus,  rebuilding  was  begun. 

But  best  of  all  was  the  good  will  of  the  East 
and  the  loyalty  of  the  West.  Within  ten  days 
telegrams  began  to  arrive  from  New  York  im- 
porters and  wholesalers,  saying:  "I  suppose 
you  are  burned  out.  Order  what  you  need  and 
pay  when  you  can.  We  want  your  trade." 
Notes  were  renewed  and  credit  extended.  Chi- 
cago 's  business  men  were  thus  saved  from  bank- 
ruptcy and  enabled  to  make  a  fresh  start.  Their 
reputation  for  honest  dealing  proved  to  be  cap- 
ital— a  thing  for  future  business  men  to  re- 
member. 

Pluck  and  energy  formed  the  rest  of  their 
capital.  Many  country  merchants  in  the  West 
who  had  always  sent  East  for  their  stocks  of 


goods  came  to  Chicago  to  see  the  ruins,  and  con- 
cluded to  give  their  orders  to  the  unconquered 
city  by  the  lake.  Thus,  from  the  ashes,  arose  a 
commerce  far  surpassing  in  volume,  and  in  ter- 
ritorial extent,  the  business  of  the  lost  city. 

Within  twenty  days  after  the  fire  a  long  row 
of  wholesale  houses  reared  their  pine  fronts  along 
the  park  strip  on  Michigan  avenue,  from  Ran- 
dolph to  Twelfth,  on  land  leased  by  the  city  for 
a  year.  Thousands  of  teams  were  at  work  re- 
moving the  debris  of  the  fire  and  dumping  it  in 
the  lagoon  between  the  Illinois  Central  tracks 
and  the  breakwater.  Within  six  weeks  212  per- 
manent stone,  brick,  and  iron  structures,  with  a 
frontage  of  three  and  one-half  miles,  were  in 
course  of  erection.  By  October,  1872,  $45,000,- 
000  had  gone  into  building  operations  in  the 
burned  district. 

Fire  Taught  Its  Lesson.  Visitors  came  from 
every  quarter  of  the  globe  to  see  10,000  struc- 
tures going  up  at  once,  with  100,000  workmen 
plying  their  tools,  and  thousands  of  teams  haul- 
ing away  debris  and  unloading  construction 
materials.  As  the  city  grew  by  day  and  night 
it  was  seen  that  the  calamity  had  taught  its 
lesson.  Joseph  Medill  had  been  elected  mayor 
on  a  '  tfire-proof ' '  reform  ticket,  and  the  fire 
department  had  been  reorganized,  the  fire  limits 
had  .been  extended.  Every  building  that  wenj; 
up  was  larger,  stronger,  and  better  constructed 
than^the  one  it  replaced.  The  depots  were  larger 
and  more  centrally  located,  the*  theaters,  hoteis, 
and  business  houses  were  built  after  the  best 
knowledge  of  fire-proof  construction  of  that 
day.  Wooden  mansard  and  tar-felt  roofs  were 
not  permitted.  Iron  fronts  were  abandoned 
and  iron  columns  and  beams  were  enclosed  in 
brick  work  and  cement. 

The  business  district  itself  was  expanded  east- 
ward to  Michigan  avenue  and  southward  to 
Jackson.  Different  lines  of  business  sought  com- 
mon centers  for  the  convenience  of  customers 
and  proprietors. 

In  the  West  division  factories  and  business 
houses,  built  under  strict  laws,  replaced  the 
cottages  and  lumber  yards  that  had  been  de- 
stroyed. In  the  fine  residence  district  of  the 
North  side,  land  had  become  so  valuable  that 
the  lawns  were  built  over.  A  dozen  or  more 
tall,  narrow  houses  occupied  the  place  of  one 
spacious  mansion. 

In  the  building  of  these  dwelling  houses  the 
boulevard  system  of  Paris  was  adopted — that 
is,  blocks  of  residences  were  of  one  general  style 
of  construction  and  interior  arrangements.  Even 
yet  you  may  see,  along  the  older  avenues,  rows 
of  these  English  basement  houses,  of  two  and 
three  stories  and  the  high  stoop,  each  occupying 
twenty-five  feet  of  frontage. 


93 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 


In  down-town  streets,  business  blocks  of  the 
seventies  may  be  recognized  by  their  round- 
arched  windows  and  heavy  cornices.  None  are 
over  eight  stories  in  height,  and  most  of  them 
five  or  six.  Highly  ornate  these  buildings  were, 
with  thick  walls,  as  is  attested  by  the  heavy 
window  moldings — enough  masonry  in  them  to 
build  a  sky-scraper  of  today. 

The  Panic  of  1873.  Before  the  work  of  rebuild- 
ing Chicago  was  fairly  completed  a  financial 
panic  swept  the  country — for  the  third  time  in 
Chicago 's  civic  history  of  forty  years.  The 
hard  times  of  1837  were  due  to  a  vacillating  pub- 
lic policy  on  the  banking  system;  in  1857  they 
were  due  to  the  fall  of  the  securities  of  Southern 
states  in  circulation  in  the  North,  because  of 
the  coming  war.  In  1873  the  financial  panic  was 
precipitated  by  the  retirement  of  ' '  greenbacks. ' ' 

During  the  war  the  government  issued  legal 
tender  notes  to  the  extent  of  $450,000,000.  These, 
being  printed  in  a  bright  green  ink,  were  known 
popularly  as  greenbacks.  The  issue  of  so  much 
paper  money,  with  nothing  but  the  credit  of 
the  government  behind  it,  caused  it  to  fall  in 
value,  especially  in  the  dark  days  of  1864,  when 
foreign  nations  believed  and  hoped  that  the 


JOSEPH     MEDILt, 

Editor   The   Tribune 

and  "Fire  Proof" 

Mayor. 


W.  L.  B.   JENNY. 
Inventor    of    Sky- 
scraper. 


Union  was  to  be  disrupted.  The  greenback  dol- 
lar fell  to  thirty-eight  cents  in  gold.  At  the 
end  of  the  war  the  credit  of  the  nation  was  so 
far  improved  that  the  paper  dollar  rose  to 
sixty  cents  in  value.  By  1870  it  had  risen  to 
ninety  cents.  There  it  remained  for  five  years, 
after  which  time  it  rose  slowly  until,  in  1878, 
it  was  on  a  par  with  gold.  This  was  because 
the  government  was  paying  off  its  war  debt  and 
meeting  the  interest  on  bonds  promptly.  Pub- 
lic credit  was  completely  restored. 

In  the  meantime  three  things  had  happened 
to  disturb  the  money  system  of  the  country  and 
to  bring  on  hard  times.  Congress  had  passed 
a  law  making  interest  on  bonds  payable  in  coin 
in  order  to  improve  the  credit  of  the  country.  It 
had  also  stopped  the  coinage  of  the  silver  dol- 
lar, which  was,  at  that  time,  worth  more  as 
bullion  than  a  gold  dollar.  The  silver  party 
which  sprang  up  a  few  years  later  called  this 
the  crime  of  '73.  Third,  the  Republicans  pro- 


posed to  retire  the  ' '  greenbacks ' '  altogether  and 
restore  specie  payments.  All  these  disturbances 
of  the  money  system  unsettled  business  for  five 
years,  or  until  things  were  again  on  a  permanent 
basis. 

From  1873  to  1879  was  a  time  of  panic,  bitter 
political  fights,  and  business  depression.  Hard 
times  seemed  to  settle  like  a  pall  that  was  never 
to  be  lifted.  It  was  1878  before  the  silver  dollar 
was  restored  to  circulation,  and  in  January,  1879, 
specie  payments  were  resumed  under  the  Sher- 
man act  of  1875.  In  October,  1874,  Chicago  had 
another  fire  that  destroyed  eight  hundred  build- 
ings, valued  at  $3,000,000.  Fire,  hard  times, 
mobs  of  the  unemployed,  constant  agitation  of 
the  money  question,  and  then  fire  again,  damp- 
ened even  the  spirit  of  Chicago. 

On  the  morning  of  January  2,  1879,  salutes 
were  fired  and  the  stars  and  stripes  run  up  on 
postoffices,  custom  houses,  and  banks  to  announce 
that  all  government  notes  were  redeemable  in 
gold.  "For  the  first  time  in  seventeen  years," 
says  one  authority,  "customers,  on  entering 
banks,  saw  stacks  and  rolls  of  gold  which  could 
be  had  in  exchange  for  greenbacks. ' '  This  imme- 
diately restored  confidence,  for  every  dollar  in 
circulation  went  to  par  with  gold.  The  country 
entered  upon  fourteen  years  of  good  times. 

Chicago  Began  to  Build  Again.  In  1880,  in 
spite  of  nine  years  of  most  discouraging  draw- 
backs, it  had  grown  to  a  half  million  in  popula- 
tion and  was  the  fourth  city  in  the  United 
States.  The  burned  districts  of  seventy-one  and 
seventy-four  had  been  entirely  rebuilt,  and  bet- 
ter than  before.  The  municipal  debt  had  been 
reduced.  Miles  of  streets  had  been  paved,  the 
sewerage  system  extended,  a  new  lake  tunnel 
supplied  the  city  with  deep  water,  the  telephone 
was  applied  to  police  administration,  the  tele- 
graph wires  were  put  underground,  electric  light- 
ing was  adopted  for  the  streets,  and  thirty-two 
swing  bridges  spanned  the  river. 

The  new  era  of  good  times  and  phenomenal 
growth  was  heralded  by  the  building  of  a  $4,000,- 
000  city  hall.  For  twelve  years  Chicago  con- 
ducted its  civic  business  in  the  "Old  Kookery" 
at  La  Salle  and  Adams.  From  1880  to  1890  Chi- 
cago 's  industries,  number  of  laborers  employed, 
wages  paid,  and  value  of  products  increased 
threefold.  Its  territory  expanded  also.  By  the 
vote  of  the  people  the  villages  of  Hyde  Park 
and  the  Town  of  Lake  (Englewood)  below  39th 
street,  Lake  View  above  Fullerton  avenue  on  the 
north,  and  Cicero  on  the  west,  with  a  number  of 
smaller  suburbs,  became  a  part  of  Chicago. 
These  "villages"  had  long  become,  in  all  but 
a  legal  sense,  a  part  of  Chicago.  They  now 
added  over  200,000  to  the  population  of  the 
city. 

When  building  began  again  early  in  the 
eighties  it  took  on  a  new  character.  The  busi- 
ness district  had  become  uncomfortably  crowded, 
but  it  refused  to  expand.  General  lines  of  busi- 


94 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


ness  could  not  go  north  or  west  of  the  river 
without  losing  trade.  The  business  center  had 
expanded  eastward  to  Michigan  avenue.  South- 
ward it  refused  to  go  below  Adams  until  1885. 

In  that  year  the  Board  of  Trade  put  up  a 
magnificent  new  building  on  Jackson  street,  fac- 
ing La  Salle.  Office  buildings  for  bankers,  bro- 
kers, and  insurance  companies  sprang  up  in  its 
neighborhood.  South  Clark  street  to  Van  Buren 
became  a  center  for  railway  general  offices,  and 
Dearborn  street  filled  up  with  publishing  and 
printing  houses.  On  State,  Wabash,  and  Michi- 
gan retail  dealers  refused  to  go  south^  of  Adams. 
Even  today,  when  the  city  has  grown  to  2,000,- 
000  in  population,  the  retail  shopping  district 
extends  only  to  Congress. 

But  room  had  to  be  made  for  Chicago's  grow- 
ing business.  Keuts  of  office  and  store  rooms 
went  up  to  impossible  figures,  and  property  own- 


XEW   YORK  LIFE  BUILDING  IN  COURSE  OF  CONSTRUCTION. 

ers  knew  that  buildings  of  twice  the  prevailing 
heights  of  six  and  eight  stories  could  be  filled 
to  the  roofs.  But  such  buildings  were  thought 
to  be  impossible.  Before  1885,  no  business  build- 
ing had  been  erected  anywhere  in  the  world 
over  eight  stories  in  height.  There  were  lofty 
castles  and  cathedrals,  but  these  were  built 
where  foundations  could  be  spread  underground 
to  carry  the  enormous  weight  of  the  superstruc- 
ture. A  city  building  must  stand  on  its  own 
frontage  and  depth. 

It  had  been  determined  by  civil  engineers  long 
before  that  Chicago's  hardpan,  which  is  not 
rock  but  a  thick  bed  of  soft  compressible  clay, 
will  support  only  3,000  pounds  to  the  square 
foot.  Masonry  is  extremely  heavy,  and  eight 
stories  was  the  limit  in  height  to  which  brick 


and  stone  buildings  could  be  raised.  When,  in 
1885,  the  Home  Insurance  company  proposed  to 
put  up  a  new  building  in  the  office  district  of  La 
Salle  street,  it  was  aware  that  three  or  four 
times  as  many  small,  well-lighted  offices  as  had 
ever  been  built  on  a  space  similar  to  the  site  it 
owned  could  be  rented.  The  directors  of  the 
company  called  in  an  architect  of  wide  reputa- 
tion, Mr.  W.  L.  B.  Jenney,  and  presented  the 
problem  to  him. 

The  First  "Sky  -  Scraper"  Was  Asked  For! 
When  an  occasion  offered,  Chicago  never  yet 
failed  to  produce  the  man.  To  fulfill  the  require- 
ments, every  method  of  construction  in  use 
would  have  to  be  abandoned.  Iron  had,  by  this 
time,  come  to  be  used  very  largely  in  bridge  and 
trestle  building,  replacing  masonry  and  timber 
work,  at  a  saving  of  weight  and  increase  of 
strength.  It  occurred  to  Mr.  Jenney  that  a  tall 
building  might  be  erected  on  a  skeleton  frame  of 
structural  iron. 

It  took  faith,  both  on  the  part  of  the  archi- 
tect who  faced  possible  failure  and  ridicule,  and 
on  the  part  of  capitalists  who  were  venturing  a 
big  sum  of  money  in  an  experiment.  A  con- 
tinuous bed  of  concrete  was  laid  on  the  hard- 
pan,  and  in  this  was  set  a  grillage  of  railroad 
iron,  to  form  the  foundation.  Cast-iron  columns 
were  embedded  in  this  and  connected  at  the  top 
with  beams  and  girders  of  iron.  A  few  steel 
beams  were  used,  the  first  structural  steel  ever 
cast  in  America.  Bolted  to  the  columns  were 
iron  brackets  on  which  rested  the  lintels  of  win- 
dows and  doors.  Slowly  the  iron  -skeleton  rose, 
each  part  riveted  and  bolted  in  place  like  bridge- 
work. 

To  see  such  a  building  going  up  today  is  a 
common  enough  sight,  for  every  city  in  the  land 
has  its  sky-scrapers.  But  in  1885  capitalists, 
architects,  owners  of  iron  and  steel  works,  and 
trades  unions  watched  the  construction  of  tj»u> 
Home  Insurance  company's  building  in  Chicago, 
with  hope,  incredulity,  and,  finally,  delight,  for 
it  was  to  revolutionize  municipal  architecture, 
enormously  increase  the  value  of  land  in  the 
heart  of  cities,  bring  vast  orders  to  steel  mills, 
and  offer  another  probable  field  for  skilled  work- 
manship. 

When  the  masonry  work  was  begun  it  was 
seen  that  brick,  iron,  stone,  and  fireclay  were  to 
be  used  as  mere  curtains,  let  down  around  the 
framework,  fireproofing  it,  and  -encasing  it  in 
every  part  like  flesh  on  the  bones  of  the  human 
body.  The  strength  lay  in  the  iron.  The  weiglit 
of  the  masonry  used  in  each  story  was  carried 
on  its  own  columns  and  girders.  At  last  it  was 
,lone — the  tallest,  lightest,  strongest,  most  com- 
modious building  ever  erected  on  a  similar  space 
in  the  world.  Chicago  had  begun  to  expand  up 
ward  and  the  world  was  the  richer  by  a  new 
method  of  building  to  be  known  as  the  "Chicago 
Construction. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XV. 


The  World's  Fair. 

Had  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
discovery  of  America  fallen  in  1882  instead  of 
1892,  Chicago  would  not  have  had  the  World's 
Fair,  and  the  world  would  have  been  much  the 
poorer. 

The  seventies,  you  will  remember,  were  marked 
by  hard  times.  Chicago  managed  to  get  its 
burned  district  rebuilt  when  the  panic  of  sev- 
enty-three swept  the  country.  It  was  seventy- 
nine  before  the  money  questions  which  grew  out 
of  the  Civil  war  were  settled,  and  the  eighties 
had  opened  before  active  building  was  resumed. 

In  1885  began  an  era  of  soaring  ambition  for 
Chicago.  Business  in  every  line  expanded  to 
undreamed-of  proportions;  the  city  itself  began 
to  expand  upward  in  the  first  of  the  sky-scrapers. 
In  this  era  of  good  times  it  occurred  to  many, 
in  all  sections  of  the  country,  that  the  momen- 
tous voyage  of  Columbus  should  be  commemo- 
rated in  some  fitting  manner.  It  was  the  general 
sentiment  that  the  old  world,  whence  the  ex- 
plorer came,  should  be  invited  to  make  another 
voyage  to  the  western  hemisphere  to  discover 
what  marvelous  things  nad  been  accomplished 
in  a  continent  that  lay  undreamed  of  at  a  time 
when  Europe  had  grown  old  and  weary. 

There  was  no  pattern  upon  which  to  model 
such  a  celebration.  National  fairs  for  barter 
and  sale  had  been  held  for  centuries,  but  so 
jealously  were  secrets  of  manufacture  guarded, 
up  to  very  recent  times,  that  many  were  still 
unconvinced  that  even  selfish  interests  are  best 
served  by  a  free  interchange  of  knowledge. 

Paris  Exposition  Furnished  Model.  —  France 
broke  down  the  barriers  and  inaugurated  the 


1889.  The  merchant  mind  of  the  world  compre- 
hended the  opportunity.  Those  of  the  United 
States  were  eager  applicants  for  space.  Elec- 
tricity was  used  for  lighting  and  power.  Skele- 
ton steel  -construction,  first  put  to  the  test  in 
Chicago  in  1885,  was  exemplified  in  the  Eiffel 
tower. 

Chicago,   heady  with  success,  drawn  only  re- 
cently   into    international    prominence,    had    her 


THE  "GOLDEN  DOOR"  TO  THE  TRANSPORTATION  BUILDING. 

international  exhibition  of  art,  industry,  trade, 
and  science  on  the  Champs  de  Mars,  Paris,  in 


MAIN    PORTICO    OF    FINE    ARTS    BUILDING. 

imagination  fired.  All  at  once  the  country  was 
aware  that  Chicago  was  proposing  to  hold  a 
World's  Columbian  Exposition  and  to  eclipse 
Paris.  What  was  $8,000,000,  anyway?  A  mere 
bagatelle!  No  doubt  Chicago  could  eclipse  Paris 
in  mere  size,  was  said  in  derision  by  the  Eastern 
press.  But  Chicago  had  grown  up  and  waxed 
fat  and  acquired  a  thick  skin  under  the  gibes 
of  the  "effete  East,"  and  it  cared  nothing  for 
them.  In  1890  this  inland  metropolis  was  to 
have  1,000,000  people.  Chicago  in  its  own  opin- 
ion was  the  most  stupendous  development  on 
Columbus'  continent.  The  world  should  be 
asked  to  come  to  see  it,  and  Chicago  promised 
to  give  the  world  its  money's  worth. 

The  old  task  of  booming  the  city  was  done 
with  the  ease  of  long  familiarity.  The  country 
had  been  flooded  with  letters,  circulars,  news- 
paper articles,  and  public  speeches.  New  York, 
St.  Louis,  and  the  city  of  Washington  appeared 
as  rivals  for  the  honor,  but  they  were  foredoomed 
to  failure,  for  Chicago  went  to  Congress  with 
a  $5,000,000  pledge  from  the  people,  attesting 
its  ability  to  finance  the  World's  Fair.  It  was 
April,  1890,  before  Congress  passed  the  act  of 
authority,  and  late  in  December  before  the  Presi- 
dent announced  the  World's  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion to  the  world  and  invited  the  participation 
of  foreign  nations. 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Details  of  construction  were  improved  upon  in 
each  successive  building  of  the  sky-scraper  type. 
The  continuous  foundation  gave  place  to  piers  of 
concrete  and  grillage  of  steel  rails.  Steel  took 
the  place  of  iron  in  the  superstructure,  and  red- 
hot  rivets  were  found  superior  to  bolts  in  join- 
ing the  parts.  Greater  rigidity  was  secured  to 
the  framework,  a  matter  of  immense  importance 


SECOND  TRIBUNE  BUILDING. 
Type   of  architecture   of   '70s. 

when  you  consider  the  constant  jar  of  the  city 
streets  and  the  enormous  wind  pressure  to  which 
tall  buildings  are  subjected  in  Chicago.  With 
the  sky-scraper,  too,  was  developed  a  simpler 
style.  Heavy  window  moldings  and  cornices  dis- 
appeared. Interior  courts  gave  air  and  light; 
greater  cleanliness  was  secured  by  the  use  of 
marble,  tile,  mosaic,  hardwood,  and  ornamental 
iron  and  bronze  work  in  interior  finish.  Eleva- 
tors were  improved  to  meet  the  new  demands, 
and  also  heating  and  lighting  plants.  Business 
was  conducted  under  vastly  better  conditions. 

A  notable  sky-scraper  is  the  Masonic  Temple 
at  State  and  Kandolph.  To  the  apex  of  the 
roof  it  stands  302  feet  above  ground  and  is 
twenty  stories  high.  Chicago  now  has  many  of 
these  huge  buildings  in  the  business  center. 
Michigan  avenue  above  Congress  presents  a 
frontage  of  a  solid  quarter  of  a  mile  of  them. 
One  can  stand  back  on  Grant  park  and  get  a 
proper  perspective  to  this  cliff-like  line  of  tower- 
ing granite  which  does  not  then  seem  out  of  pro- 
portion to  its  surroundings. 

But  we  can  seldom  get  the  proper  perspective 
to  a  sky-scraper.  Seen  from  the  pavement  imme- 
diately below  or  from  across  an  ordinary  street, 
proportion  and  detail  are  alike  lost  in  the  im- 
mense height.  From  time  immemorial  men  have 
dreamed  of  a  city  beautiful,  in  which  grace  and 
art  should  not  be  sacrificed  utterly  to  utility. 
Artists  lifted  their  hands  in  despair  at  sight  of 
the  sky-scraper.  It  was  condemned  as  hope- 
lessly ugly  in  itself,  and  disfiguring  to  a  city. 
Chicago  had  given  precious  little  thought  to 
beauty  in  architecture,  although  it  prided  itself 
on  its  parks  and  boulevards  and  the  splendor  of 
its  private  residences  and  public  buildings.  But 
the  time  was  coming  when  the  city  by  the  lake 
should  redeem  its  reputation  for  pure  commer- 
cialism. 


The  Sky-Scraper  Beautiful!  When  the  Wom- 
an's Christian  Temperance  Union  concluded  to 
erect  the  Temple  building,  something  was  wanted 
that  should  express  the  beauty  and  grace  of 
woman  and  of  the  work  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  as 
well  as  to  return  large  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment. The  commission  was  given  to  an  artist 
builder,  John  W.  Eoot.  He  had  a  spacious  corner 
site  on  which  to  build,  where  round  towers  could 
break  the  lines  of  wall,  a  great  recessed  door 
could  be  wreathed  about  with  carving,  windows 
could  be  clustered,  and  moldings  break  up  the 
great  height  so  the  eye  could  climb,  by  easy 
steps,  to  a  roof  of  gables,  dormers,  cones,  and 
finials  that  should  "soar,  singing  to  the  sky." 
Seen  from  across  the  street,  or  from  the  pave- 
ment immediately  below,  this  is  so  beautiful  a 
building  as  to  have  silenced  all  criticism  on  the 
impossibility  of  the  sky-scraper  as  a  work  of  art. 

Chicago  had  to  wait  long  for  the  development 
of  its  artistic  side.  Of  the  sixty  years  of  its 
incorporated  life,  twenty  were  spent  down  in 
the  mud,  in  dirt,  disorder,  and  disease.  Twenty 
more  had  gone  by  in  something  more  of  comfort, 
in  much  splendor  of  marble,  veneering,  paint, 
stucco,  and  gliding;  but  "sham  and  shingles" 
carried  their  reproach  of  commercialism  and  es- 
sential vulgarity.  The  fire  had  taught  Chicago  'a 
people  to  turn  to  the  solid  and  enduring,  in  build- 
ings as  in  life,  for  there  was  a  spiritual  as  well 
as  a  civic  lesson  in  the  Great  Fire. 

But  the  immediate  material  consequences  of 
the  calamity  had  to  be  repaired  and  practically 
forgotten  in  a  greater  prosperity  before  Chicago 
could  learn  that  a  good  and  useful  thing  is  the 
more  good  and  useful  by  being  made  beautiful. 


ENTRANCE     HALL,     CHICAGO     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY 
BUILDING. 

The  mantel   is   built   of  marble  from  Nixon  building 
and  ruined   Illinois   Central  Depot. 

Chicago's  artistic  sense  seemed  to  blossom  all 
at  once.  The  city  by  the  lake  had  amazed  the 
world  by  its  achievements  in  numerical  and  civic 
growth,  commerce,  and  the  industrial  arts.  Now, 
in  1893,  it  was  to  amaze  the  world  by  building 
the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  which,  for 
all  time,  is  to  rise  in  men's  memories  as  "The 
Dream  City." 


97 


THE    STOEY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Chicago  and  tne  Northwest  were  jubilant. 

The  choice  and  treatment  of  a  site  were  left 
to  a  landscape  gardener — Frederick  Law  Olm- 
stead.  The  bluffy,  wooded  region  along  the  north 
shore  would  have  suited  the  purpose  of  the  artist 
better,  but  the  question  of  transportation  com- 
pelled him  to  select  a  tract  on  the  lake  shore 
below  Fifty-seventh  street.  Twenty  years  before 
he  had  been  called  upon  by  the  city  to  decide 
how  this  666  acres  of  sand  ridges  and  marsh, 
with  a  frontage  of  two  miles  along  the  lake, 
could  best  be  converted  into  a  park.  The  entire 
tract  was  formed  of  three  sandbars  which  lay 
parellel  to  each  other  and  to  the  shore.  The 
outer  sandbar  was  still  submerged,  with  a  shal- 
low lagoon  behind  it.  The  two  inner  bars  had 
been  long  above  water,  and  the  separating  lagoon 
had  been  filled  in  to  form  a  marsh.  On  the 
ridges  were  growths  of  low  oaks,  scantily  nour- 
ished and  distorted  by  gales.  The  tract  was  al- 
most exactly  in  the  condition  in  which  Father 
Marquette  had  found  the  entire  Chicago  plain 
over  two  hundred  years  before.  It  looked  hope- 
less. 

His  plan  involved  a  reversal  of  nature's  proc- 
ess— the  restoration  of  the  lagoons  by  digging 
out  the  marsh  and  the  use  of  the  excavated  ma- 
terial to  build  up  and  enrich  the  sandbars.  So 
Venice  had  been  built  on  sandbars  and  hum- 
mocks, and  given  her  water  streets. 

Through  a  broad  canal  cut  across 
the  outer  sandbar  the  water  of 
Lake  Michigan  was  let  into  the 
lagoons,  and  the  canal  itself 
formed  a  water  court  or  vestibule 
to  the  Exposition.  The  outer  bar 
was  built  up  to  form  a  beach  and 
esplanade,  the  second  turned  into  a1 
wooded  island,  and  the  third  filled 
out  to  the  bordering  street,  Stony 
Island  avenue. 

Presently  there  was  an  army  of 
workmen  on  the  fair  grounds,  ex- 
cavating, walling,  laying  pipes,  and 
burying    wires.      The    island    rose 
out  of  the  trenches,  prairies  were 
robbed  of  soil  to  cover  the  sterile 
sand;    Distant    swamps,    of    water 
plants ;  forests,  of  trees.   The  outer 
bar  was  built  up  and  paved,  the 
long  driveway  graded  and  macad- 
amized, the  building  sites  terraced.    The  enormous 
work  of  simply  turning  that  dreary  waste  of  sand 
and  marsh  into  a  beautiful  site  to  be  built  upon, 
all  in  two  short  years,  can  never  be  estimated. 

The  White  City  Was  Growing  on  Paper.— Ten 
of  the  most  capable  architects  of  the  country  had 
been  called  together,  and  were  told,  as  one  writer 
says:  "Bring  all  your  dreams  of  a  city  beauti 
ful.  Remember  the  best  work  of  races  which 
have  built  before;  all  of  religious,  royal,  and 
national  life.  From  them  devise  a  symbol  of 
the  power  and  aspirations  of  today.  The  fair  at 
Paris  expressed  all  that  the /world  had  done,  up 
to  date.  Show  us  that,  and  also  give  us  a  vision 


of  what  the  world  would  do  if  all  its  dreams 
could  come  true. ' ' 

In  the  end  these  men,  who  knew  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  past  and  the  ideals  above  all  sordid 
gain  of  the  present,  declared  that  the  Greeks  had 
thought  best  of  all  nations  in  architecture  and 
plastic  arts.  The  World's  Fair  was  to  be  classic 
— ivory-white,  like  weathered  marble,  such  as 
Greece  might  have  built  on  the  low  ./Egean  coast. 
The  word  went  abroad  that  the  World 's  Fair  was 
to  be  a  beautiful  creation.  The  plan  was  pub- 
lished far  and  wide. 

West  Is  Loyal  to  Chicago. — Western  states, 
knowing  of  old  that  Chicago  always  performed 
more  than  it  promised,  made  appropriations  and 
applied  for  building  space.  Eastern  states  fol- 
lowed, and  the  nations  of  the  Old  World.  Each 
was  ashamed  to  be  niggardly  in  the  face  of  this 
opulent  city  that  had  sprung  up  a  thousand  miles 
from  the  sea,  and  that  now  cried  its  wares  in 
every  port  and  capital  of  the  world.  In  all, 
$13,000,000  were  appropriated  for  over  eighty 
state  and  governmental  buildings  and  exhibits. 
Chicago  alone  was  to  spend  $20,000,000. 

Then  concessions  were  asked  for,  the  side-show 
adjuncts  which  no  exposition  could  hope  or  find 
it  advisable  to  escape.  The  mile-long  park 
strip  to  the  west  of  the  fair  grounds  was  con- 
verted into  the  Midway  Plaisance,  with  its  un- 


THE  COURT  OP  HONOR. 

forgetable  medley  of  the  bizarre,  the  amusing, 
the  instructive,  and  the.  frankly  mercenary. 

The  proposal  to  hold  a  world's  congress  auxil- 
iary was  the  last  astonishing  development  of  an 
enterprise  that  had  already  expanded  beyond  the 
limits  of  all  human  achievements.  Chicago  pro- 
posed to  show  not  only  the  material  but  the 
intellectual  and  moral  progress  of  the  world. 
The  dedication  ceremonies  were  held  on  the  21st 
of  October,  1892.  Its  grand  procession  and  cere- 
monial program  were  conducted  with  dignity. 
Mrs.  Potter  Palmer  made  the  first  speech  ever 
delivered  by  a  woman  on  such  an  occasion,  with 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


the  ease  and  grace  of  a  princess,  accustomed  to 
laying  corner-stones  and  dedicating  hospitals.  A 
Chicago  poetess,  Miss  Harriet  Monroe,  read  an 
ode  of  flawless  form,  dignity  of  theme,  and 
beauty  of  expression. 

The  Manufactures  building,  in  which  the  cere- 
mony of  dedication  took  place,  was  big — the  big- 
gest building  ever  erected.  Visitors  were  awed 
by  the  1,100  acres  of  forest  that  had  been  cut 
down  to  build  it,  the  weight  of  a  single  truss, 
the  forty  carloads  of  glass  in  the  roof,  the 
cathedrals  that  could  be  set  down  in  it,  the 
armies  that  could  be  mobilized  on  its  floor,  the 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  exhibits  that  were 
to  find  room  on  its  floor  and  gallery.  The  Eiffel 
tower  was  forgotten  in  the  tremendous  engineer- 
ing feats  displayed  by  that  monstrous  building 
that  stretched  like  the  wall  of  an  ancient  city 
between  the  esplanade  and  the  lagoon. 

The  Fair  in  Embryo.  The  aspect  of  the  Fair, 
as  a  whole,  was  forbidding.  Enormous  buildings 
enclosed  in  scaffolding  sprawled  over  vast  areas 
of  muddy  ridges  separated  by  muddier  ponds. 
A  waste  of  gray  water  combed  along  an  unkempt 
beach;  winter  was  closing  in  on  chaos.  Outside 
the  grounds  miles  of  railroad  tracks  were  being 
elevated,  and  street  crossings  lowered.  Ten 
miles  of  electric  elevated  road  were  being  built 
from  the  heart  of  the  city  to  the  fair  grounds, 
and  surface  lines  were  being  extended  by  the 
trolley.  Miles  upon  miles  of  streets  were  being 
laid  out  across  wild  prairies,  piped,  sewered, 
wired,  graded,  paved,  and  lined  with  hotels, 
stores,  dwelling  houses,  and  booths.  A  hundred 
thousand  workmen  were  busy  making  a  mush- 
room metropolis  out  of  a  residence  suburb,  and 
building,  inside  of  six  miles  of  high  board  fence, 
a  city  that  was  to  exist  for  six  months  and  then 
vanish  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 


In  May,  1893,  Chicago  was  ready  for  the  quar- 
ter of  a  million  guests  who  witnessed  the  open- 
ing of  the  Fair  when  President  Cleveland  touched 
the  electric  button  which  started  the  great  Allis 
engine.  The  flags  of  the  United  States  and  Spain 
were  run  up,  a  salute  of  artillery  was  fired, 
whistles  blew,  and  a  quarter  of  a  million  people 
cheered. 

The  "Vvorld's  Fair  was  a  university,  if  by  that 
is  meant  the  presentation  of  all  the  arts  and 
sciences.  The  nations  of  the  world  were  brought 
together  in  their  historical,  social,  and  industrial 
aspects.  Other  civilizations,  achievements,  aspi- 
rations, ideals,  were  contrasted  with  our  own. 
Inside  the  buildings  were  65,000  separate  exhib- 
its, valued  at  $15,000,000,  and  representing  every 
field  of  art  and  industry. 

Thousands,  millions,  in  the  Great  West  had 
never  seen  a  beautiful  building,  a  marble  statue, 
a  painting  on  canvas,  a  bit  of  porcelain,  a  yard 
of  fabric  that  delighted  the  touch,  or  heard  a 
strain  of  classic  music  or  had  a  vision  of  beauti- 
ful pleasure  grounds.  And  then  to  experience 
these  things  all  at  once  as  they  did  at  the  World  's 
Fair!  The  delight  of  the  people  was  written  on 
happy  countenances.  One  of  the  most  marked 
characteristics  of  the  crowds  was  the  quiet  pleas- 
ure of  the  people. 

Financially  the  World's  Fair  was  a  failure. 
The  expenditures  exceeded  the  receipts.  Every 
stockholder  lost  money  on  the  venture,  but  none 
has  ever  been  heard  to  regret  the  investment. 
The  memory  of  it  is  a  possession  that  was  cheap 
at  any  cost.  For  the  first  time  in  Chicago 's  his- 
tory the  balance  was  written  on  the  wrong  side 
of  the  ledger,  but  she  has  made  the  world  her 
debtor,  and  challenged  it  to  give  all  the  people 
a  more  perfect  vision  of  delight  than  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition. 


THE    QUADRIGA    ON    fllK    PERISTYLE. 

Columbus'   Triumphal   Entry   Into  the  New   World. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


Labor  and  Bight. 

The  man  who  is  employed  by  the  day  and 
must  stay  where  his  work  is,  is  handicapped 
when  he  comes  into  competition  with  the  one 
whose  time  is  his  own  and  who  has  the  means 
and  power  to  gather  information  where  it  will 
be  to  his  advantage.  If  the  capitalist  is  a  fair 
man  and  not  controlled  in  his  actions  by  other 
capitalists  who  are  not  fair,  he  will  do  justice 
in  his  employment  of  labor.  If  he  is  a  grasping 
man,  one  of  the  sort  to  grind  the  face  of  the 
poor,  his  workmen  are  at  a  disadvantage  in 
dealing  with  him.  It  is  a  comparatively  easy 
thing  to  turn  off  men,  to  import  new  ones,  or  to 
close  the  works  for  a  time  to  compel  labor  to 
accept  unfair  terms. 

The  tendency  among  employers  and  capital- 
ists to  plan  together  and  take  advantage  where 
possible,  has  made  it  necessary  and  expedient 
for  labor  to  unite  and  make  demands  for  what 
is  right  and  fair.  In  Chicago,  as  a  commercial 
and  industrial  center,  combinations  of  capital 
and  combinations  of  labor  have  found  wide 
fields  for  operation.  To  say  that  the  work  on 
either  side  has  been  entirely  fair  and  honorable 
in  all  details  is  to  ignore  the  truth.  While  hu- 
man beings  subject  to  pride,  passion,  prejudice 
and  thirst  for  power  are  the  agencies  which  com- 
bine, we  cannot  expect  the  golden  rule  to  be  the 
sole  guide. 

Where  a  story  can  be  told,  whether  true  or 
false,  regarding  the  dealings  of  the  other  side, 
the  telling  of  it  is  sure  to  arouse  such  hatred 
and  desire  to  get  even  that  unfair  means  will 
be  employed  unless  there  is  great  virtue  in  the 
acting,  side. 

Then,  too,  in  all  deliberative  bodies  the  push- 
ing, strenuous  man  who  acts  quickly  and  some- 
times with  violence,  often  forges  to  the  front 
and  becomes  the  agent  or  mouthpiece  of  the  or- 
ganiz^tion,  and  it  is  made  to  do  what  he  chooses 
rather  than  what  the  whole  body  of  men  would 
choose,  if  acting  as  a  pure  democracy. 

It  is  no  more  than  might  be  expected  if  we 
find  that  men  identified  with  labor  have  been 
more  zealous  to  carry  their  point  than  to  main- 
tain the  laws  of  the  land.  It  is  not  surprising 
to  find  that  capitalists  who  have  felt  their  su- 
periority of  position,  education  and  opportunity 
in  life  should  so  combine  against  labor  as  to 
cause  unnecessary  hardships  and  wrongs  at 
times  when  they  have  felt  able  to  do  so  and 
escape  the  just  punishment  which  should  follow 
such  conduct. 

It    is    easy    for   the    man    of   position,    accus- 


tomed to  giving  orders  and  having  his  will  car- 
ried out,  to  feel  bitter  resentment  when  a  la- 
borer makes  a  demand  of  him  and  accompanies 
it  with  a  threat.  Without  stopping  to  consider 
deeply,  he  says,  I  feed  these  men;  I  give  them 
their  work;  they  would  starve  but  for  me;  I 
will  take  no  orders  from  them;  they  may  accept 
what  I  offer  or  starve.  He  does  not  like  a  de- 
mand or  threat  from  the  man  in  rough  clothing. 

It  is  easy  for  the  man  who  toils  to  form  a 
prejudice  against  the  rich  in  general.  He  sees 
his  wages  cut  at  times  when  it  seems  to  him 
entirely  unnecessary.  At  times  he  discovers  the 
facts  and  they  show  that  the  cut  has  been 
prompted  solely  by  greed  on  the  part  of  the  rich 
man.  While  taking  the  wages  his  employer  doles 
out  to  him,  the  man  may  readily  acquire  the 
habit  of  hating  employers  generally  on  account 
of  what  he  has  seen  and  on  account  of  other 
things  which  he  has  reason  to  suspect,  but  can- 
not prove. 

When  two  classes  of  people,  both  large  and  im- 
portant to  a  community,  come  into  conflict,  and 
bitterness  is  provoked  by  injustice,  deceit,  lying, 
trickery  and  suspicion,  the  bitterness  is  liable 
to  break  out  in  such  a  conflict  as  will  bring 
suffering'  upon  the  entire  community,  and  those 
who  are  on  neither  side  will  suffer  with  those 
who  contend. 

This  has  always  been  the  case  in  human  af- 
fairs and  it  will  continue  until  we  all  respect 
our  laws  and  elect  officials  who  have  such  in- 
tegrity as  to  win  entire  confidence.  We  shall 
need  to  be  a  very  superior  people  in  order  to  do 
justice  by  each  other  at  all  times.  We  shall 
need  to  have  a  thoroughly  honest  government  in 
order  to  get  justice  at  all  times  for  ourselves 
or  give  it  to  our  neighbors. 

But  respect  for  law  and  right  is  growing  in  our 
midst,  and  one  of  the  great  deeds  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  the  working  out  of  certain 
ideas  which  make  for  peace  and  right;  and  that 
working  out  was  largely  done  in  the  heart  of 
the  country  during  the  years  following  the 
World's  Fair.  It  will  be  profitable  to  us  to  look 
carefully  into  the  history  of  labor  and  capital 
in  those  years  and  see  where  we  stand  now  as 
a  people  in  comparison  with  where  we  stood  be- 
fore that  time.  Much  has  been  cleared  up  in 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century  of  organized  ef- 
fort. 

More  than  ever  the  people  of  the  United 
States  believe  today  in  right.  They  desire  jus- 
tice. It  is  characteristic  of  every  man  to  desire 
fair  dealing.  But  where  his  pocketbook  seems 


100 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


to  be  hurt  by  justice  he  is  liable  to  wish  an 
exception  to  be  made.  Every  employer  wants 
all  workmen  well  paid,  but  if  he  cannot  make 
the  per  cent  he  sets  his  mind  on  by  paying  fair 
wages  he  is  inclined  to  wish  in  this  case  that  the 
wage  question  may  stand  aside. 

If  we  were  all  entirely  honest  labor  might 
come  to  capital  and  say,  We  will  work  for  you 
nnd  take  whatever  you  think  is  right  after  you 
figure  out  the  profits.  But  we  have  not  yet 
found  out  how  to  secure  that  honesty  in  all  man- 
kind. As  we  get  nearer  to  it,  strife  will  pass 
away  from  our  midst.  But  as  things  are  we 
must  have  organization  of  capital  and  organi- 
zation of  labor,  and  each  must  make  the  best 
bargain  it  can,  each  must  strive  for  favoring 
laws,  and  each  must  learn  to  operate  within  the 
law.  The  nearer  we  can  come  to  the  golden 
rule  the  better  for  all  concerned,  but  there  will 
be  loss  for  the  side  that  depends  too  much  upon 
it.  Suspicion  and  guilt  will  arouse  strife  for 
some  years  yet,  but  whatever  can  be  done  to 
strengthen  regard  for  law  and  order  and  to  keep 
the  statutes  just  will  make  life  more  secure  and 
living  wages  more  certain. 

The  Pullman  Strike.  The  Pullman  Car  Com- 
pany, now  the  Pullman  Company,  operates  a 
plant  near  Chicago.  The  town  is  called  Pull- 
man and  is  one  of  the  sights  of  industrial  Chi- 
cago. This  company  has  contracts  with  the  rail- 
roads to  draw  its  cars.  The  railroads  charge 
fares  for  riding  and  the  Pullman  Company 
charges  other  fares  for  space  in  its  cars.  The 
use  of  these  cars  saves  the  railroads  great  ex- 
pense for  cars,  as  many  passengers  prefer  to  pay 
the  extra  cost  and  ride  in  them. 

Slack  business  in  1894  cut  off  the  need  of  new 
cars,  and  the  Pullman  Company  considered  shut- 
ting down  the  plant  and  building  nothing  that 
year.  As  the  town  was  established  on  account 
of  the  car  shops,  it  was  thought  unwise  to  shut 


down  entirely  and  let  the  population  become 
scattered,  for  that  would  make  it  more  difficult 
in  the  future  to  induce  men  to  locate  there,  and 
the  demand  for  skilled  help  the  next  year  might 
be  met  with  great  difficulty. 

It  was  to  the  interest  of  the  company  to  run 
at  least  on  part  time.  It  was  to  the  interest 
of  those  owning  their  homes  to  do  whatever 
might  be  for  the  good  of  the  town  and  the  com- 
pany. So  the  company  and  the  men  considered 
the  question  of  running  the  works  with  cut 
wages  for  the  men  and  no  profit  for  the  com- 
pany. It  was  agreed  upon  and  work  continued. 

But  by  May  it  was  evident  that  the  workmen 
were  severely  pinched,  for  some  of  them  had 
their  wages  cut  almost  fifty  per  cent.  Dissat- 
isfaction arose  and  the  company  was  requested 
to  restore  the  old  wages.  Declaring  that  it  was 
impossible  to  do  'this,  the  company  refused  to 
give  any  increase.  The  statement  was  given 
out  that  the  company  was  running  at  an  actual 
loss  in  order  to  accommodate  the  men,  and  if 
they  would-  not  continue  under  that  arrange- 
ment until  times  should  be  better  the  works 
would  be  shut  down. 

Eight  here  was  the  place  where  integrity  and 
confidence  might  have  prevented  great  loss  and 
hardship.  If  the  integrity  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
had  been  possessed  by  the  company's  officials  and 
had  been  recognized  by  the  workmen,  so  that 
they  could  believe  the  statement  that  the  com- 
pany was  losing  money,  the  men  would  have 
continued.  But  they  doubted  the  company's 
word.  They  believed  the  statement  was  put  out 
merely  to  grind  labor  to  the  earth.  They  felt 
that  the  time  had  come  for  united  labor  to  show 
its  power. 

The  strike  was  declared  on  May  11,  1894.  More 
than  half  the  workmen  quit;  3,000  men  were  at 
once  absent  from  their  shops  and  the  company 
closed  its  doors. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


The  Government  Supreme. 

Eugene  V.  Debs  was  president  of  the  newly 
formed  American  Eailway  union,  a  body  of 
workmen  intended  to  embrace  all  railway  em- 
ployees acting  together.  This  great  body  at  once 
took  charge  of  matters  and  declared  a  boycott 
of  all  Pullman  cars.  This  order  forbade  engi- 
neers, brakemen  and  switchmen  from  handling 
Pullman  cars  on  any  road  anywhere.  At  the 
same  time  the  union  demanded  that  the  Pull- 
man company  submit  the  dispute  to  arbitration. 
The  company  replied  that  there  was  nothing  to 
arbitrate,  as  the  question  was  merely  one  of 
whether  the  company  should  operate  its  own 
works  or  not.  So  the  boycott  was  declared  on 
all  Pullman  cars,  June  26,  to  begin  on  the  Illi- 
nois Central  and  to  extend  over  the  whole  coun- 
try. All  companies  persisting  in  handling  the 
cars  were  notified  that  their  employees  would 
strike  and  an  intimation  was  given  that  all 
the  trades  in  the  country  would  be  called  out 
if  necessary  to  bring  the  Pullman  company  to 
the  terms  proposed  by  the  union. 

Now  the  railway  companies  were  under  con- 
tract to  draw  the  cars  and  heavy  penalties  were 
to  be  paid  in  case  of  failure.  They  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  building  of  cars,  and  they 
reasoned  that  they  could  not  pay  fines  on  their 
contracts  at  the  demand  of  unions  in  a  matter 
in  which  they  were  not  directly  active.  On 
June  29,  President  Debs  declared  a  boycott  on 
the  twenty-two  roads  centering  in  Chicago,  and 
ordered  the  calling  out  of  all  the  men  working 
on  them  as  rapidly  as  possible  through  action 
in  the  local  unions.  This  blocked  all  transpor- 
tation. No  freight,  no  passengers  and  no  mail 
could  be  moved. 

Although  some  of  these  roads  did  not  use  Pull- 
man cars,  their  officers  had  joined  the  Chicago 
General  Managers'  Association,  and  so  were 
hostile  to  the  American  Railway  union.  The 
strike  extended  rapidly.  The  men  were  urged 
not  to  interfere  with  property  rights,  but  sym- 
pathizers thought  violence  was  allowable. 

Rioting  began.  Trains  were  blocked,  upset  and 
deprived  of  their  crews  by  those  who  boldly 
boarded  them  and  beat  the  non-union  men  who 
were  hindering  labor  in  its  fight  for  life.  In 
Chicago  famine  was  at  hand,  for  many  kinds  of 
supplies  could  not  be  had.  There  was  plenty  in 
the  country,  but  no  means  of  getting  it  to  town. 

The  destruction  of  railway  property  became 
so  alarming  that  the  companies  asked  the  city 
and  county  authorities  to  protect  them.  It  is  the 


business  of  the  government  to  protect  property. 
If  a  mob  destroys  property  the  government  must 
make  it  good.  But  the  strikers  thought  nothing 
of  that;  they  merely  did  their  utmost  to  cripple 
the  railway  service,  regardless  of  law  or  the 
rights  of  persons  or  property.  Governor  Altgeld 
sent  troops  to  Chicago  after  the  local  authorities 
were  unable  to  meet  the  situation  with  any  ef- 
fective control.  But  the  militia  in  many  in- 
stances were  more  in  sympathy  with  the  mobs 
than  with  the  authorities.  They  were  looked 
upon  by  the  strikers  as  their  neighbors,  who 
would  not  hurt  them  under  any  circumstances, 
and  so  the  rapine  went  on  in  the  face  of  the 
militia.  All  attempts  to  conciliate  or  overawe 
the  rioters  failed. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  carry  the 
mails.  Whatever  interferes  with  the  running 
of  the  most  obscure  mail  cart,  mail  boat,  or  mail 
car  comes  directly  into  contact  with  the  United 
States  government.  In  a  sense  the  man  who 
stops  a  mail  cart  is  a  rebel  and  a  traitor  and 
must  answer  for  his  crime.  This  was  known 
to  the  leaders  of  the  labor  forces,  but  it  was 
thought  that,  as  the  unions  were  not  warring 
against  the  government  and  the  stopping  of  the 
mails  was  but  an  indirect  incident  of  the  con- 
flict, the  government  might  not  draw  the  line 
according  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  law. 

The  general  government  is  also  bound  to  pro- 
tect the  great  lines  of  interstate  commerce.  Tie- 
ing  up  trains  loaded  for  distant  states  became 
a  matter  for  the  general  government  to  attend 
to.  The  attorney-general  acted.  A  federal  writ 
was  issued  forbidding  all  persons  in  northern 
Illinois  from  interfering  with  the  mail  convey- 
ance or  with  interstate  railroad  commerce.  Lead- 
ers were  therefore  arrested  and  the  grand  jury 
was  summoned  to  find  indictments  against  Pres- 
ident Debs  and  others  who  were  acting  with 
him. 

President  Cleveland  was  appealed  to  when  the 
militia  of  Illinois  could  not  protect  life  and 
property  in  Chicago.  He  sent  a  large  force  of 
cavalry,  artillery  and  infantry  to  the  scene  at 
once.  Governor  Altgeld  remonstrated  by  tele- 
gram, but  instead  of  recalling  the  military 
forces  President  Cleveland  sent  more  to  Chicago. 
The  troops  came  into  contact  with  a  mob  of 
20,000,  largely  foreigners  whose  wrongs  in  tho 
old  country  put  them  naturally  against  the  gov- 
ernment and  in  sympathy  with  any  movement 
which  favored  the  laboring  man. 

Trains  were  ditched,  cars  standing  idle  were 


102 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


overturned  for  pure  mischief,  everything  per- 
taining to  railway  operation  was  subject  to  such 
destruction  as  could  be  contrived  against  it  by 
those  who  looked  at  it  as  an  enemy  to  the  cause 
of  labor.  President  Cleveland  ordered  more 
troops  to  the  vicinity  and  declared  that,  as  the 
Constitution  made  it  clearly  his  duty  to  put  down 
disturbances  and  arrest  lawbreakers,  he  would 
put  the  entire  United  States  army  into  action 
if  necessary.  The  law  must  be  obeyed.  He  saw 
no  other  alternative.  Those  who  broke  the  laws 
were  to  him  criminals.  He  would  put  down  vio- 
lence and  crime. 

This  was  a  surprise  to  many,  who  had  hoped 
the  federal  government  would  do  as  the  state 
troops  had  done,  and  make  a  show  of  defense 
without  really  stopping  lawlessness.  When  it 
was  seen  that  the  soldiers  carried  cartridges 
loaded  to  kill  and  that  there  was  no  question 
that  when  ordered  to  fire  they  would  shoot  to 
kill,  it  became  evident  that  rioting  could  not 
win  rights. 

The  sympathy  which  the  strike  had  at  first 
from  those  who  wished  labor  better  things  was 
diminished  when  stories  of  riotous  conduct  went 
over  the  wires.  The  safety  of  our  country  lies 
in  the  law-abiding  character  of  its  citizens.  Un- 
less our  laws  are  ooeyed  we  can  have  no  coun- 
try. Nothing  opens  the  way  for  anarchy  or  des- 
potism so  surely  as  a  loose  idea  regarding  the 
majesty  of  the  law.  The  people  of  Chicago  who 
were  compelled  to  remain  in  their  homes  for 
some  days  because  it  was  dangerous  to  go  upon 
the  streets  in  the  ordinary  course  of  business, 
soon  felt  the  pressure  of  lawlessness  and  de- 
manded a  restoration  of  law  and  order  first  and 
the  consideration  of  the  rights  of  individuals 
afterwards. 

President  Debs  was  sentenced  to  six  months' 
imprisonment  and  others  for  half  as  long  a 
term.  Forty-three  officials  of  the  unions  were 


thus  made  to  feel  the  immediate  necessity  of 
obeying  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  Many 
thought  this  was  too  severe.  Especially  was  this 
belief  strong  among  those  who  saw  that  the 
convictions  were  had  without  jury  trial.  This 
act  of  the  court  was  regarded  by  many  as  a 
menace  to  the  liberty  of  the  people  quite  as 
distinct  as  was  the  breaking  of  the  laws  by 
those  condemned. 

The  strike  failed.  And  yet  it  was  not  a  com- 
plete failure.  It  made  clear  that  labor  can  or- 
ganize and  that  it  has  rights  and  that  employers 
ought  to  consider  the  condition  of  their  em- 
ployees as  carefully  as  they  do  the  profit  and  loss 
account  in  their  ledgers.  It  set  people  thinking 
along  new  lines.  It  exhibited  the  value  of  hon- 
esty and  truth  between  man  and  man  by  show- 
ing the  disaster  which  may  follow  wrong  and 
the  suspicion  of  wrong. 

President  Debs  declared  that  he  had  learned 
that  strikes  are  repugnant  to  the  feelings  of  so- 
ciety at  large.  He  said  that  as  long  as  he 
should  live  he  would  never  again  participate  as 
an  official  in  any  strike,  for  that  is  not  the 
proper  method  of  righting  wrongs.  The  appeal 
should  be  made  to  the  people  at  the  polls  and 
not  by  striking  at  commerce  or  industry. 

And  so  we  must  look  to  the  ballot  for  relief. 
We  also  begin  to  feel  that  looking  to  the  ballot 
does  not  mean  simply  carrying  an  election  by 
any  means,  fair  or  foul,  but  by  securing  just  leg- 
islation and  an  honest  execution  of  the  laws. 
Out  of  all  the  suffering  and  loss  of  the  great 
strike  we  have  come  with  both  sides  guilty. 
Wrong  has  been  done  mutually.  But  we  have 
learned  that  the  American  people  will  support 
what  they  believe  to  be  right. .  When  all  our 
boys  and  girls  grow  up  to  be  fair  men  and  wom- 
en, speaking  the  truth  and  acting  out  the  right, 
we  shall  be  out  of  the  reach  of  all  industrial 
despotism  and  all  danger  of  violation  of  the  law. 


103 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


Looking  It  Over. 

One  of  the  best  ways  of  getting  a  good  idea 
of  a  city  is  to  take  a  look  at  it.  If  your  means 
permit  you  to  vise  an  automobile  for  the  pur- 
pose, you  need  no  advice  from  the  writer  as  to 
how  to  see  the  finer  parts  of  Chicago.  But 
when  you  have  seen  the  finer  parts  you  have 
-iot  seen  Chicago,  and  so  it  will  be  best  to  devote 
2,  little  time,  in  imagination,  at  least,  to  a  few 
trips  through  other  parts  of  the  city  where  the 
automobile  is  not  likely  to  run  and  where  the 
people  who  make  up  a  large  part  of  this  teem- 
ing hive  of  industry  and  exploit  live  or  do  their 
work. 

A  Trolley  Ride.  Take  a  Clark  street  car  at 
the  corner  of  Randolph  and  go  north  along 
Clark  street  to  Lincoln  park.  You  will  skirt  this 
magnificent  breathing  place  for  some  distance 
and  gain  a  fine  view  of  one  of  our  greatest 
municipal  benefactions.  Transfer  to 
Belmont  avenue  and  go  directly  west 
to  Milwaukee  avenue,  a  distance  of 
eight  miles,  all  for  5  cents,  and  occu- 
pying about  an  hour's  time,  and  you 
pass  Riverview  park,  which  is  a  fine 
example  of  what  a  Chicago  amuse- 
ment park  is  like,  with  its  many  in- 
genious attractions,  at  a  place  where 
ihe  scene  is  naturally  as  beautiful 
as  one  could  well  desire. 

Paying  another  nickel  on  the  Mil- 
waukee avenue  line,  your  expenses 
cor  this  three-hour  trip  are  met,  and 
you  pass  Logan  square  and  take  a 
transfer  to  Western  avenue  to  go  to 
Twenty-sixth  street.  You  get  a  view 
of  a  large  stone  quarry,  a  soap  fac- 
tory and  several  churches,  pass  un- 
der four  elevated  railways,  and  see 
a  large  number  of  factories  of  all 
sorts  and  sizes.  If  you  do  not  yield 
to  the  temptation  to  get  off  at  Madi- 
son street  to  enter  Garfield  park,  you  will  soon 
notice  the  big  roundhouse  of  the  Burlington  road 
with  its  great  network  of  tracks,  and  when  near 
Twenty-sixth  street  you  will  see  the  bridge  over 
the  Drainage  canal,  a  short  distance  to  the 
south,  and  right  before  you  will  loom  up  the 
buildings  of  the  International  Harvester  Com- 
pany, one  of  the  greatest  farm  implement  fac- 
tories in  the  world. 


The  McCormick  Evening  Technical  school  for 
workmen  who  wish  to  rise  is  a  notable  object, 
which  is  worthy  of  mention  when  considering 
Chicago.  A  men's  club  is  maintained  here  for 
the  benefit  of  employees  socially  and  educa- 
tionally. A  little  to  the  west  is  the  John  Worthy 
school  for  boys,  the  place  where  young  crim- 
inals are  cared  for,  partly  by  the  board  of  edu- 
cation and  partly  by  the  city.  Adjoining  it  is 
the  Bridewell,  which  reminds  us  that  where 
over  two  millions  of  people  live  near  each  other 
they  are  always  in  danger  of  depredations  from 
evil  disposed  ones  in  their  midst.  Chicago  puts 
some  of  its  criminals  here  for  terms  of  specified 
days  in  the  hope  that  they  may  see  the  error 
of  their  ways  and  avoid  the  road  leading  to  the 
penitentiary.  Transferring  to  the  Blue  Island 
avenue  car,  you  return  to  the  heart  of  the  city, 
passing  by  the  lumber  district  and  through  sev- 
eral foreign  cities  with  unspeakable  names  over 


LUMBER   DISTRICT. 

Copyright,  American  Book  Co. 

the  places  of  business,  all  of  which  are  part  and 
parcel  of  the  city  we  are  studying  in  detail. 

A  Pickle  Farm.  If  you  prefer  to  see  how 
Chicago  raises  things  from  the  soil,  take  a  Lin- 
coln avenue  car  at  Monroe  and  Dearborn  streets 
and  go  to  Rosehill,  seven  miles  away,  but  with- 
in the'  city  limits.  While  the  round  trip  will 
cost  but  ten  cents  and  require  but  two  hours' 


104 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


time,  it  will  be  time  and  money  well  spent. 
When  the  things  of  the  city  seem  to  have  dis- 
appeared on  the  way  look  for  the  Budlong  pickle 
farm.  It  was  established  in  1859  and  formerly 
put  to  soak  100,000  bushels  of  cucumbers  each 
year.  But  when  the  crops  became  too  good  a 
thing  Dame  Nature  stepped  in  and  put  a  stop  to 
pickle  raising  there.  She  gave  the  pickles  a 
disease  which  made  it  necessary  to  cultivate 
them  elsewhere,  and  now  pickles  are  raised  in 
detached  patches  in  the  country  a  hundred  miles 
or  so  away  from  the  seat  of  the  blight. 

But  the  farm  is  occupied  profitably  with  rais- 
ing every  kind  of  garden  truck  which  can  be 
persuaded  to  grow,  most  of  it  going  to  city  ta- 
bles, but  some  shipped  to  distant  points  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  This  farm  gives 
employment  to  about  2,000  hands  in  the  busy 
season  and  affords  healthful  and  remunerative 
employment  to  those  who  toil  in  the  city  during 
the  winter  and  can  get  out  to  the  pickle  farm 
for  air  and  ready  money  when  work  is  slack 
in  town  and  the  city  is  stifling  with  dust  and 
heat  in  its  crowded  quarters. 


dovoted  to  the  finest  garden  work  you  can  find 
in  America,  and  it  is  a  mercy  that  so  many  of 
the  inmates  may  find  in  it  the  joy  of  an  occu- 
pation which  has  the  strongest  power  to  correct 
their  infirmities. 

The  fountain  at  the  entrance  and  the  stately 
trees  which  invite  the  traveler  make  one  feel 
that  the  county  has  done  a  noble  thing  in  its 
endeavors  to  make  the  lives  of  these  unfortu- 
nates as  cheerful  as  possible.  Many  of  the  pa- 
tients are  out  on  the  grass  after  performing 
their  several  duties  about  the  place,  and  those 
who  cannot  be  trusted  with  freedom  are  per- 
mitted to  range  about  porches  so  inclosed  and 
protected  as  to  provide  perfect  safety.  There 
are  in  this  great  family  some  4,000  persons,  ten 
per  cent  of  whom  are  attendants,  office  employ- 
ees, etc.  On  Tuesdays  visitors  are  supplied  with 
attendants,  who  go  through  the  buildings  with 
all  who  wish  to  see  everything,  and  the  de- 
tails are  explained  in  a  gratifying  way. 

One  of  the  most  attractive  places  for  visitors 
is  the  kitchen,  for  the  utensils  and  furniture 
are  built  on  so  large  a  scale  as  to  arouse  great 


DEERING  HARVESTER  WORKS. 


One  of  the  oldest  burial  places  in  the  city  is 
Rosehill  cemetery,  founded  in  1859.  Many  old 
soldiers  lie  here.  Near  the  cemetery  is  what  is 
known  as  the  big  greenhouse,  probably  the  larg- 
est in  the  world.  You  will  be  welcome  to  see 
the  acres  of  carnations,  roses  and  lilies  which 
thrive  under  the  2,000,000  feet  of  glass.  It  is 
one  of  the  very  many  greenhouses  which  are 
to  be  found  to  the  northwest  of  Chicago,  the 
city  requiring  an  endless  supply  of  their  prod- 
ucts the  year  round. 

Dunning.  While  we  are  in  the  northwestern 
section  of  Chicago  there  is  a  delightful  summer 
trip  by  trolley  to  be  made  by  visiting  the  Cook 
county  infirmary  and  hospital  for  the  insane. 
Take  the  Milwaukee  avenue  'car  and  transfer 
to  Irving  Park  boulevard  car  to  the  end  of  the 
line.  This  gives  you  thirteen  miles  of  ride  for 
five  cents  and  brings  you  to  Dunning,  where 
over  a  quarter  of  a  section  of  land  is  allotted 
to  this  humane  work.  More  than  100  acres  are 


curiosity.  The  thousands  of  loaves  of  bread, 
baked  under  the  most  skilful  and  scientific  proc- 
esses, sometimes  awaken  in  the  visitor  a  strange 
longing  to  become  a  part  of  the  great  house- 
hold. Friends  of  inmates  are  not  restricted  to 
Tuesdays  for  visiting,  but  the  public  is  not 
given  attendants  on  other  days,  although  all 
are  welcome  to  the  grounds  daily. 

A  trip  to  the  country  on  the  city  traction  cars 
may  be  made  so  cheaply  that  one  can  hardly 
afford  to  miss  it,  if  for  no  other  consideration 
than  its  low  price.  Take  an  Ogden  avenue  cr»r 
at  State  and  Randolph  and  go  to  the  end  of 
the  line,  transferring  thence  to  the  Lyons  car. 
You  will  not  only  get  a  ride  of  considerably 
over  an  hour  for  your  nickel,  but  will  travel 
thirteen  miles  from  the  heart  of  the  city  out 
to  where  nature  is  as  beautiful  as  she  well  can 
be  in  this  climate.  It  is  there  that  the  Des- 
plaines  river  becomes  large  enough  and  disports 
itself  in  windings  multiple  enough  to  charm 


105 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


any  lover  of  nature. 

You  pass  the  famous  place  of  the  Haymarket 
riot,  and  find  the  statue  which  formerly  ob- 
structed Haymarket  square  has  been  removed  to 
a  new  site  in  Union  park.  At  Twelfth  street  Og- 
den  avenue  becomes  a  boulevard  and  cuts 
through  Douglas  park.  This  gem  of  greenery 
reached  so  soon  after  leaving  the  roar  of  down 
town  is  grateful  to  the  senses,  and  we  look  with 
pleasure  upon  the  lawns  and  shrubbery,  the  chil- 
dren 's  playgrounds,  the  Jewish  old  people 's 
home,  and  the  equipages  of  the  park.  At  For- 
tieth avenue  we  change  to  the  Lyons  car  and 
soon  leave  the  wealth  of  the  park  and  its  sur- 
roundings for  the  forest  of  smokestacks  of  the 
Western  Electric  company's  plant,  which  takes 
up  all  the  landscape  for  a  time.  You  are  now 
at  Hawthorne,  not  a  part  of  Chicago  at  this 
writing,  but  liable  to  fall  into  the  city  by  pop- 
ular vote  at  any  election. 

Now  we  are  in  the  country,  with  great  hay- 
stacks and  fields  for  hay  and  other  farm  prod- 
ucts of  the  ordinary  sort  grown  on  flat  prairie 
land.  The  township  high  school  looms  up  big 
on  the  horizon,  and  when  one  thinks  of  it  as  a 
school  the  wonder  arises  as1  to  the  whereabouts 
of  the  patrons.  But  it  is  a  township  institu- 
tion and  a  good  one,  and  is  properly  placed  in 
the  meadows  to  accommodate  people  in  the  Ci- 
cero villages  in  various  directions.  LaVergne, 
Berwyn  and  Riverside  are  the  towns  we  enter, 
and  as  the  tangled  beauties  of  winding  streets 
and  luxuriant  foliage  invite  us,  we  step  from 
the  car  and  wander  amid  its  delightful  scenes, 
not  forgetting  to  visit  the  historic  spring  and 
the  power  dam  which  gives  electric  current  to 
so  many  enterprises  and  homes. 

A  trolley  ride  to  Maywood  is  recommended 
to  all  who  wish  to  see  how  the  city  runs  off 
into  the  country,  how  the  homes  change  as  you 
pass  from  the  residences  of  the  toilers  to  those 
of  the  people  who  have  means  provided  for  the 
needs  of  this  life  and  who  are  moved  by  such 
great  questions  as  the  betterment  of  mankind 
generally  or  the  moral  progress  of  the  world. 
Take  a  Madison  street  car  at  State  and  Madison 
to  the  end  of  the  line  and  then  transfer  with- 
out extra  fare  to  the  Chicago  Consolidated 
Traction  company's  line  for  Maywood.  In  sev- 
enty-five minutes  you  will  pass  through  Austin, 
Oak  Park,  Forest  Park,  Altenheim  and  May- 
wood.  Altenheim  is  a  beautiful  estate  where  a 
number  of  aged  Germans  live  as  a  single  family. 
The  last  part  of  the  trip  is  through  the  tangled 
and  vine  woven  forests  of  the  Desplaines,  where 
picnic  parties  make  merry  on  every  summer's 
day. 

A  ride  to  North  Evanston  by  trolley  is  one  not 
to  be  neglected.  You  may  start  at  any  down 
town  corner  of  Clark  street  where  a  Clark  and 
Evanston  avenue  car  passes  and  know  that  ten 
cents  and  ninety  minutes  of  riding  will  carry  you 
fifteen  miles  to  the  northward  along  that  part 


of  the  city  which  is  so  close  to  the  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan  as  to  be  free  from  oppressive 
heat  on  any  summer's  day.  Look  out  upon  Wash- 
ington square  soon  after  crossing  the  river,  for 
there  you  will  see  the  Newberry  library  build- 
ing. In  Lincoln  park  you  will  see  the  building 
of  the  Academy  of  Sciences.  Passing  homes  of 
great  wealth  you  flit  through  beautiful  Beuena 
Park,  Sheridan  Park,  Edgewater,  Rogers  Park, 
past  Calvary  cemetery,  and  into  Evanston,  the 
seat  of  Northwestern  University  and  Garrett 
Biblical  Institute. 

This  is  a  classic  suburb  of  Chicago,  its  beauti- 
ful elms  and  maples,  its  inviting  lawns,  its  ele- 
gant homes  and  its  cultured  and  benevolent  peo- 
ple all  conspiring  to  make  your  visit  one  long 
to  be  remembered.  The  Greek  letters  on  the 
fraternity  houses  give  one  a  pleasant  thrill  of 
things  once  so  formidable,  but  no  longer  to  be 
dreaded,  and  the  great  semicircular  roof  of  the 
greatest  gymnasium  in  the  world  reminds  us  that 
the  mind  of  man  is  not  the  only  object  of  cul- 
tivation in  a  modern  university  course,  while  the 
splendid  football  grounds,  spick  and  span,  with 
the  double  grand  stands  facing  each  other  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  gridiron,  tell  us  that  the 
pig  skin  course  precedes  the  sheepskin  with  many 
undergraduates.  The  great  steel  and  glass  gym- 
nasium, a  gift  of  one  citizen,  Mr.  James  A. 
Patton,  permits  the  university  to  lead  the  world 
in  athletic  equipment. 

A  ten-mile  ride  over  the  greatest  viaduct  in 
the  city  invites  you.  Take  a  Twelfth  street  car 
at  Adams  and  Dearborn  streets  and  transfer  at 
Fortieth  avenue  to  car  going  west,  and  it  will 
bring  you  into  Forest  park  in  a  little  over  one 
hour,  after  giving  you  a  view  of  the  ends  or 
sides  of  more  freight  houses  than  you  are  likely 
to  find  elsewhere  in  one  ride.  The  viaduct  car- 
ries one  over  many  railway  trunk  lines,  over 
the  South  Branch  of  the  Chicago  river,  and  lets 
one  down  to  terra  firma  in  the  midst  of  the 
Ghetto.  You  may  step  off  the  car  and  miss  your 
fare  to  take  a  stroll  down  Jefferson  street  and 
about  the  old  Maxwell  street  district. 

If  you  are  taking  an  evening  ride  in  the 
warm  weather  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  so 
much  of  the  street  used  as  a  bedroom.  Children 
lie  about  the  sidewalks  in  promiscuous  luxury, 
and  their  elders  do  not  scorn  to  spend  the  night 
with  them,  sometimes  in  such  numbers  that  one 
has  to  be  cautious  in  walking  for  fear  of  tres- 
passing upon  the  bed  or  person  of  some  slum- 
bering individual.  You  will  see  such  evidences 
of  the  need  of  Americanizing  the  foreigner  in 
our  midst  that  you  will  desire  at  once  to  become 
a  home  missionary  and  do  your  part  to  prepare 
these  people  for  citizenship.  But  when  once  you 
enter  upon  the  task  you  find  the  inhabitant  of 
the  Ghetto  is  quite  able  to  care  for  himself  and 
does  not  really  desire  anything  you  may  hastily 
resolve  to  do  for  him.  He  is  suspicious  of  you 
and  your  good  intentions.  He  is  slow  to  adopt 


106 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


n*>vr  things.  But  he  is  becoming  Americanized 
and  already  loves  this  free  country. 

Resuming  your  ride  in  another  car  going  west 
you  pass  the  Holy  Family  church,  the  largest 
in  the  city,  and  St.  Ignatius  college,  and  you 
wonder  how  a  Christian  institution  can  flourish 
where  the  population  seems  to  be  solid  Israelite. 
But  the  answer  is  that  the  church  and  college 
were  there  before  the  Jew.  This  shows  how 
Chicago  changes.  At  Turner  avenue  you  have 
spread  out  before  you  several  city  blocks  cov- 
ered by  the  buildings  of  one  Chicago  mail  order 
house.  It  surpasses  your  dreams  of  what  busi- 
ness can  possibly  be,  and  you  are  none  the  less 
surprised  after  you  have  walked  a  mile  or  so 
about  its  floors.  How  such  a  business  could  be 
brought  to  one  general  oflfice  by  the  genius  of 
one  man  is  beyond  comprehension.  After  the 
change  at  Fortieth  avenue  the  city  is  forgotten 
and  the  country  is  yours.  At  the  end  of  the  line 
are  the  gates  of  Forest  park,  and  the  Desplaines 
river  is  but  a  little  to  the  west  of  them. 

Goose  Island  is  historic.  Take  an  Elston  ave- 
nue car  at  Randolph  and  State  streets  and  go 
west  past  the  river  and  the  $20,000,000  new 
station  of  the  Northwestern  line,  and  you  come 
shortly  to  Halsted  street  at  a  point  known  as 
"Little  Sicily."  It  is  one  of  the  busiest  cor- 
ners in  the  world.  North  of  that  you  come  to 
an  island  a  mile  long  occupied  by  tanneries,  fac- 
tories, coal  and  lumber  yards,  all  quite  different 
from  what  occupied  Goose  island  in  the  old  days 
when  foreigners  of  the  poorer  and  more  ignor- 
ant type  made  it  howl  nightly  with  revelries  in 
which  the  physical  prowess  of  men,  dogs,  birds 
and  anything  else  that  would  fight  provoked 
popular  commendation. 

The  stories  of  old  Goose  island  are  history 
now,  for  the  island  has  lost  its  people  with  the 
coming  in  of  industries  requiring  room  along 
the  water.  The  North  Branch  of  Chicago  river 
here  bends  to  the  west  and  returns,  and  the 
Ogden  canal  forms  a  string  to  the  bow  which 
makes  the  island  an  actual  one.  At  its  lower 
end  are  several  dry  docks  v  which  will  pay  one 
well  to  inspect.  A  port  like  Chicago 'gives  busi- 
ness for  these  structures  and  work  is  going  on 
there  most  of  the  time  during  the  season  of 
navigation. 

Michigan  Avenue.  Chicago  has  a  wonderful 
street  for  riches.  It  begins  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river  and  runs  due  south,  lined  on  one  side 
by  the  most  expensive,  stately  and  beautiful 
buildings  possible  for  a  business  street.  On  the 
east  it  skirts  Grant  park  for  a  mile  or  so  with 
its  Art  Institute  and  the  coming  public  build- 
ings to  beautify  it  amazingly.  Beyond  the 
park  rise  the  masts  of  our  yacht  fleet,  the  build- 
ings of  our  transportation  system  connecting 
part  of  the  lake  commerce  with  the  land  Carry- 
ing trade,  and,  beyond  all,  the  gleaming  billows 
of 'Lake  Michigan  dancing  in  the  sunlight  and 


speaking  of  the  blessings  to  the  city  conferred 
by  an  abundance  of  the  purest  water  the  world 
can  boast,  and  the  clear  sky,  which  comes  into 
contact  with  the  heart  of  the  down  town  district 
by  reason  of  its  being  practically  on  the  lake 
shore. 

Beyond  the  line  of  business  buildings,  in  which 
' '  Automobile  Row ' '  is  now  a  conspicuous  part, 
consisting  of  a  line  of  splendid  buildings  of 
the  most  airy  and  inviting  sort,  Michigan  boule- 
vard plunges  southward  for  miles,  lined  with 
the  most  costly  and  beautiful  structures  which 
wealth  and  taste  can  provide  for  urban  resi- 
dence. Visitors  to  Chicago  are  compelled  to 
view  Michigan  boulevard,  and  those  who  ap- 
proach the  city  from  the  lake,  either  by  day, 
when  the  sunshine  plays  upon  this  splendid 
thoroughfare,  or  by  night,  when  the  myriads  of 
electric  lights  add  their  glory  to  the  scene,  must 
ever  remember  as  one  of  the  visions  of  a  life- 
time the  scene  which  this  street  presents. 

But  the  finest  street  in  Chicago  is  after  all 
but  a  part  of  Chicago.  We  have  other  avenues 
and  boulevards  which  vie  with  it  in  splendor, 
and  we  have  many  streets  which  boast  much 
greater  length  and  diversity.  It  is  popularly 
supposed  by  many  who  live  in  Chicago,  but  who 
are  too  busy  to  consult  a  map,  that  Halsted 
street  comes  down  from  the  vicinity  of  the  north 
pole  and  makes  an  ambitious  lunge  out  upon  the 
prairies  looking  for  the  equator,  and  is  therefore 
our  longest  street.  This  is  an  error,  for  the 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan  cuts  somewhat  to  the 
west  of  north  and  so  one  by  one  prevents  many 
of  our  streets  from  running  too  far  towards  the 
Arctic  regions.  Halsted  street  plunges  into  the 
lake  before  getting  out  of  the  city  limits.  Its 
parallel  street,  Western  avenue,  has  the  advan- 
tage of  being  a  mile  further  west  and  conse- 
quently striking  the  lake  shore  much  farther  to 
the  north,  and  it  runs  to  the  south  far  beyond 
the  city  limits,  cutting  the  city  of  Blue  Island 
in  two  and  disappearing  upon  the  prairie  in  the 
same  manner  that  Halsted  street  gets  away  from 
the  southern  limits  of  Chicago. 

Halsted  street  yields  the  palm  for  length  to 
Western  avenue,  but  still  it  retains  a  number 
of  characteristics  which  warrant  us  in  giving  it 
some  special  notice.  Let  us  begin  at  the  north, 
where  it  is  such  an  aristocratic  thoroughfare 
that  the  residents  would  not  consent  to  having 
it  called  Halsted  street,  that  name  being  con- 
sidered too  plebeian.  It  is  Clarendon  avenue, 
if  you  please,  at  its  northern  extremity,  and 
the  palatial  residences  and  splendid  grounds 
which  front  upon  Clarendon  avenue  are  such  that 
a  royal  palace  might  be  placed  among  them 
without  attracting  any  particular  attention  aft- 
er the  newness  of  the  ground  breaking  wore  off. 


107 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND   NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Running  to  the  south  from  Clarendon  avenue 
Halsted  street  quickly  acknowledges  its  name 
and  sees  no  reason  why  Halsted  is  not  as  eu; 
phonious  as  Clarendon  and  as  desirable.  Sub- 
stantial people  live  along  North  Halsted  street. 
Then  less  substantial  people,  speaking  financial- 
ly, and  not  considering  their  physical  propor- 
tions, dwell  there.  These  are  succeeded  by  mul- 
titudes to  whom  a  bath  tub  is  not  a  necessity, 
people  from  across  the  sea,  in  districts  where 
water  is  not  regarded  highly,  either  for  interior 
or  exterior  application.  Then  the  Ogden  ditch 
is  crossed  and  Halsted  street  rests  awhile  on  the 
southern  end  of  Goose  island,  from  which  it 
springs  up  into  the  air  and  goes  high  over  the 
heads  of  those  who  navigate  the  North  Branch 
of  the  Chicago  river,  those  who  work  in  railway 
and  coal  yards,  and  those  who  are  obliged  to 


get  carried  up  by  mistake  to  a  point  where  the 
city  lies  before  them,  a  mass  of  ipoving  smoke, 
roar,  smells,  lumber,  shipping,  ruins,  concrete, 
steel  and  brick. 

Going  under  some  railways  and  over  others, 
it  pursues  the  even  tenor  of  its  way,  passing 
a  great  valley  where  once  was  level  ground,  but 
now  so  much  rock  has  been  taken  out  to  burn 
into  lime  that  barbed  wire  fences  are  required, 
as  well  as  signs  and  police,  to  keep  curious  peo- 
ple from  getting  in  and  falling  down  some  preci- 
pice. Then  it  passes  one  of  the  splendid  little 
parks  of  the  city,  where  everything  that  can 
delight  and  animate  the  human  animal  in  the 
way  of  exercise,  indoor  or  out,  is  to  be  had  free, 
with  public  library,  club  facilities  and  pure, 
cheap  refreshments  added  for  those  who  have 
time  to  enjoy  them. 


ARMOUR    PACKING    PLANT,    FROM    BALLOON. 

Copyright,  George  A.  Lawrence. 


travel  en  less  exalted  highways  and  keep  nearer 
the  surface  of  the  ground  than  the  traveler  on 
Halsted  street. 

Languages  enough  to  have  put  the  tower  of 
Babel  to  shame  are  strung  along  this  highway, 
one  public  school  whose  territory  touches  it 
claiming  thirty  distinct  tongues  in  its  patron- 
age. On  it  goes  to  the  southward  past  the  Ghet- 
to and  other  languages  of  various  importation, 
past  haunts  of  crime  and  poverty,  past  factories 
of  stupendous  architectural  features,  to  the 
South  Branch  of  the  Chicago  river,  where  it  is 
picked  up  bodily  by  a  lift  bridge  which  spans 
the  stream  and  carries,  by  elevator  mechanism, 
the  entire  roadway  and  sidewalks  high  over  the 
tops  of  the  vessels  which  pass,  affording  a  fine 
view  to  lucky  boys  who  evade  the  officers  and 


At  Thirty-ninth  street  it  runs  between  pack- 
ing houses  and  the  Union  stock  yards,  rising 
slightly  to  get  over  Bubbly  creek,  a  stream 
which  formerly  forgot  to  run,  but  stood  station- 
ary with  such  a  scum  of  stock  yards  refuse  upon 
its  surface  that  men  have  lost  their  lives  in  it 
by  attempting  to  cross  on  what  seemed  to  be 
dry  land.  The  new  intercepting  sewer,  whicli 
carries  much  pure  lake  water  towards  the  Drain- 
age canal,  has  corrected  that  now.  But  the 
scent  of  the  roses  is  said  to  hover  round  the 
vase  which  has  held  them,  and  so  the  fragrance 
for  which  this  section  of  the  city  has  become 
famous  is  freely  proffered  the  visitor  who  is 
traveling  south  on  Halsted  street. 

The  great  Union  stock  yards  are  to  the  west 
of  you.  For  a  mile  this  property  abuts  on  South 


108 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Halsted  street.  The  lowing  of  the  cattle  strikes 
the  ear,  and  the  enormous  smokestacks  which, 
with  a  mile  of  solid  masonry  several  stories 
high,  cut  off  the  entire  western  horizon,  remind 
us  that  man  eats  meat  and  cattle  are  born  to 
supply  it.  In  those  yards  transactions  go  on 
daily  in  which  there  is  not  a  scratch  of  pen  or 
any  insurance  of  payment  of  money  or  delivery 
of  goods  given  except  that  which  goes  with  the 
word  of  an  honest  man  dealing  with  another 
honest  man.  For  such  is  the  ethics  of  the  stock 
yards  that  a  man  who  is  not  honest  cannot  do 
business  there  unless  he  acts  strictly  like  an 
honest  man  and  remembers  accurately  what  he 
said  the  price  should  be  when  it  had  been  hag- 
gled over  perhaps  for  hours  and  finally  agreed 
upon  at  a  small  fraction  of  a  cent.  The  buyer 
remembers  what  he  said  he  would  give,  how 
many  cattle  were  bought,  what  condition  they 
were  in  and  how  the  different  cattle  in  the  lot 
looked.  He  knows  they  will  be  weighed  to  him 
honestly  without  his  going  to  the  scales,  they 
will  be  billed  to  him  according  to  agreement 
without  his  being  on  hand  to  inform  the  bill 
clerk,  no  odd  cattle  of  an  inferior  sort  will  be 
put  into  his  purchase  or  choice  ones  taken  out 
on  the  way  to  the  scales,  and  if  there  are  any 
diseased  cattle  among  them,  a  thing  no  man  can 
find  out  surely  except  by  chemical  and  micro- 
scopic inspection  after  death,  he  will  lose  noth- 
ing by  reason  of  this  defect.  Knowing  this  we 
honor  the  smell  of  the  locality  and  wonder  if 
there  is  any  other  place  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
where  so  much  money  changes  hands  daily  with 
anything  like  the  disp'ay  of  manly  integrity 
which  has  grown  up  in  this  section  of  Chicago. 

So  rapidly  do  the  electric  cars  run  on  this 
splendid  roadway  that  we  are  at  the  end  of  the 
line  at  Seventy-ninth  street  before  we  recover 
from  our  thoughts  of  the  stock  yards,  with  their 
integrity  and  odor.  But  we  are  by  no  means  at 
the  end  of  South  Halsted  street.  We  have  trav- 
eled southward  on  that  great  thoroughfare  four- 
teen miles,  and  here  is  another  trolley  line  await- 
ing us  to  take  us  miles  farther  to  the  south,  and 
we  are  assured  that  when  we  reach  the  end  of 
that  line  Halsted  street  will  still  go  on  over  the 
prairie,  forgetting  the  more  than  twenty  miles 
which  it  has  run  in  the  city  limits  and  going 
on  towards  a  milder  climate  with  great  perti- 
nacity. 

Halsted  street  speaks  over  fifty  languages, 
bears  every  condition  of  human  life,  is  proud  of 
the  residences  of  thousands  of  the  best  citizens 
of  the  United  States  which  line  its  right  of  way, 
and  does  a  business  which  would  readily  wipe 
out  our  national  debt  if  called  upon  to  do  it  for 
patriotic  purposes,  for  patriotism  and  philanthro- 
py meet  together  in  Halsted  street  daily  while 
purity  and  probity  are  by  no  means  rare  amid 
its  constant  din. 

A  sheltered  harbor  thirty-two  miles  long,  ac- 


commodating the  largest  boats  on  the  lakes, 
reaches  through  the  second  largest  city  in  the 
country  and  taps  the  great  industrial  district 
that  has  grown  up  along  the  river.  It  is  pro- 
posed to  make  this  great  harbor  pay  good  re- 
turns to  the  people  of  the  sanitary  district  on 
their  $50,000,000  which  built  the  sanitary  and 
•  ship  canal. 

A  committee  presented  the  advantages  of  this 
harbor  fo  the  Corn  Products  Eefining  Company 
and  a  great  plant  is  going  up  at  Summit,  on  the 
canal.  The  company  will  lay  out  $5,000,000 
there.  This  is  the  largest  private  enterprise 
drawn  to  the  vicinity  of  Chicago  in  twenty  years 
except  the  new  steel  plant  at  Gary,  Ind.  That 
company  looked  over  every  site  from  Vermont 
to  the  Missouri  river  to  find  the  best  location. 
The  shipping  facilities  and  nearness  to  the  corn 
belt  caused  Summit  to  win. 

Summit  is  only  eight  miles  down  the  channel 
where  the  Belt  Line  railway  meets  the  canal.  It 
gives  the  town  easy  transfer  of  freight  by  rail 
or  water  to  every  line  reaching  out  from  Chi- 
cago. The  stone  for  the  buildings  is  being  taken 
from  the  piles  of  limestone  lying  along  the 
canal.  Concrete  and  steel  are  being  used  ac- 
cording to  the  best  methods  of  modern  science. 

Money  will  flow  to  the  district  when  its  5,500 
acres  of  high  and  dry  kind  along  the  canal  has 
been  occupied  by  renters.  The  trustees  will 
build  docks  and  rent  the  water  frontage.  Only 
$25,000  a  year  is  now  coming  in,  but  so  much 
will  be  collected  in  years  to  come  that  the  peo- 
ple who  have  been  taxed  for  twenty  years  to 
build  the  canal  will  find  themselves  enriched 
by  it. 

Summit  is  now  a  little  town  where  trains  re- 
fuse to  stop,  but  in  a  few  years  it  must  become 
a  thriving  city. 

Stone  from  the  channel  was  refuse  till  the 
Chicago  market  called  for  it.  Twenty  million 
cubic  yards,  worth  more  than  $36,000,000  when 
crushed  and  delivered  in  Chicago,  will  help  pay 
for  the  work.  The  district  has  gone  into  the 
stone  business,  with  Mr.  John  M.  Ewen  in  charge 
of  it.  There  is  enough  stone  on  hand  to  make 
concrete  docks  from  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago 
river  to  St.  Louis,  or  it  could  be  used  to  build  a 
solid  line  of  factory  building  from  Robey  street, 
Chicago,  to  Joliet,  forty  miles  inland. 

Water  power  from  the  canal  will  bring  in 
great  sums  to  make  taxes  lighter  in  the  district. 
A  power  plant  at  Lockport  has  been  built  at  a 
cost  of  $4,000,000.  The  engineers  figure  on  get- 
ting 40,000  marketable  horsepower.  Let  us 
think  what  that  means.  With  current  brought 
by  cables  to  Chicago  and  every  street  in  the 
city  lighted  by  it  we  will  use  but  one-fourth  of 
the  power  developed  at  Lockport. 

With  the  other  three-fourths  we  may  run  all 
the  street  cars  in  Chicago  and  light  all  Joliet. 
Or  we  may  operate  a  line  of  factories  built 
solidly  from  Robey  street  to  Summit. 


109 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


Education,  Philanthrophy,  Religion. 

Philanthropic  Associations.  Chicago  believes 
in  helping  those  who  need  it.  It  has  sixteen 
institutions  to  provide  people  with  work,  forty- 
eight  to  give  food,  fuel,  clothing  and  general 
relief,  thirty-eight  day  nurseries  and  kindergar- 
tens, thirteen  frosh-air  charities,  four  institu- 
tions giving  legal  advice  about  wages,  nine  to 
relieve  foreigners,  five  for  soldiers,  sailors  and 
their  widows  and  orphans,  six  for  relief  to 
classes  and  professions,  thirteen  caring  for  the 
sick  at  home,  thirty-seven  asylums,  homes  and 
cheap  lodgings  for  children,  eight  homes  for 
sick  or  crippled  children,  six  probation  courts 
and  means  of  reforming  children,  twenty-one 
city,  state  and  national  homes  for  destitute 
adults,  twenty-two  institutions  providing  work, 
cheap  meals  and  lodgings,  thirty-eight  general 
hospitals  where  charitable  work  is  done,  twelve 
convalescent  and  special  hospitals,  sanitariums 
and  special  dispensaries,  thirty-seven  free  dis- 
pensaries, a  home  for  incurables,  nine  women  'a 
and  children's  hospitals  and  dispensaries, 
twenty-one  training  schools  and  homes  for 
nurses,  seven  societies  for  diet,  visitation  and 
aid  for  the  sick  in  institutions,  three  asylums 
for  the  blind,  one  for  the  deaf,  and  thirteen 
public  schools  with  instruction  for  the  blind  and 
deaf,  five  schools  for  crippled  children,  eleven 
for  the  insane,  feeble-minded  or  epileptic,  six 
for  reforming  men,  ten  for  women,  three  for 
improvement  of  industrial  conditions,  a  tubercu- 
losis institute  with  many  branches,  and  twenty- 
three  social  settlements. 

Social  settlements  are  neighborhood  centers 
where  persons  of  culture  and  means  live  or  work 
for  the  improvement  of  the  people  living  near. 
They  try  to  help  them  in  manner  of  living,  in 
morals,  in  social  conditions  and  in  other  ways. 
They  seek  out  wrongs  and  right  them  by  calling 
official  attention  to  them,  and  they  try  to  im- 
prove industrial  conditions.  There  are  twenty- 
three  such  institutions  in  Chicago.  Hull  House 
and  Gads  Hill  Center  are  the  oldest  and  Chicago 
Commons  one  of  the  most  noted. 

They  ''seek  to  provide  a  center  for  higher 
civic  and  social  life,  to  maintain  religious,  edu- 
cational and  philanthropic  enterprises  and  im- 
prove the  conditions  in  industrial  centers. ' ' 
Gymnasiums,  clubs,  classes,  coffee  houses,  work- 
ing-men's clubs,  theaters,  industrial  museums, 
shops  for  handwork  of  many  kinds,  women 's 
clubs,  musical  societies,  cooking,  sewing  and 
household  arts,  penny  savings  and  other  forms 
of  working  together  for  the  good  of  all  are  car- 
ried on. 


Hull  House  is  at  355  Halsted  street.  The  first 
building  was  the  old  residence  of  Charles  J. 
Hull,  and  is  over  half  a  century  old.  Miss  Jane 
Addams  founded  the  settlement  and  has  devoted 
her  life  to  the  work  of  uplifting  the  masses  who 
have  thronged  that  portion  of  the  city,  making 
it  more  European  than  American. 

To  give  the  Jews  of  the  Ghetto  culture  along 
American  lines  it  was  found  necessary  to  carry 
America  to  them,  for  they  huddled  together  so 
closely  that  their  life  was  merely  a  copy  of  what 
they  experienced  in  the  old  country.  So  Amer- 
icans were  induced  to  live  in  their  midst,  making 
a  settlement  in  the  heart  of  the  foreign  dis- 
trict. 

With  about  fifty  resident  and  one  hundred 
non-resident  members,  all  on  the  lookout  to  help 


JANE    ADDAMS. 

others  in  their  own  peculiar  difficulties,  the  life 
of  these  self-sacrificing  Americans  is  revealing 
to  the  neighborhood  many  of  the  excellent  fea- 
tures of  the  land  of  the  free. 

Visitors  are  welcome  at  reasonable  hours.  The 
evening  activities  of  the  place  are  striking. 
Many  people  in  the  neighborhood  who  are  em- 
ployed by  day  throng  the  classes,  the  theater,  the 
shops  and  club  rooms  in  the  hours  of  their  free- 
dom from  toil  and  eagerly  seize  the  opportunity 
to  perfect  their  knowledge  of  our  language  or 


110 


THE   STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


of  art,  literature,  science,  or  some  branch  of  in- 
dustry. 

The  restaurant  is  the  best  in  that  part  of  the 
city  and  its  prices  are  low.  A  branch  of  the 
Chicago  public  library  is  maintained  here  and 
a  residential  club  for  boys  and  one  for  girls. 
Plays  are  given  in  the  theater,  sometimes  by 
local  talent  so  capable  as  to  attract  public  at- 
tention. Greek,  Italian,  Yiddish  and  other  plays 
have  been  given  in  the  original  languages  by 
those  who  are  natives  of  lands  where  those  lan- 
guages are  spoken. 

A  playground  is  provided  for  children  and  a 
day  nursery,  a  kindergarten,  a  gymnasium,  an 
art  studio,  a  book  bindery,  looms,  and  shops  at- 
tract hundreds  of  people  who  are  greatly  helped 
by  them. 

Chicago  Commons  is  at  Grand  avenue  and 
Morgan  street,  where  the  thronging  people  from 
many  foreign  countries  have  crowded  together  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  river.  Prof.  Graham 
Taylor  opened  a  settlement  there  in  one  of  the 
fine  old  residences  of  the  former  days  of  the 
district  before  the  foreign  element  crowded  out 
the  people  of  wealth.  Since  the  opening  in 
May,  1894,  the  settlement  has  been  a  source  of 
inspiration  and  instruction  to  the  neighbors. 
About  twenty-five  residents  take  part  in  the 
work  and  the  institution  maintains  many  clubs 
and  classes. 

This  settlement  aims  to  promote  "co-operation 
and  reciprocity  within  the  neighborhood  and 
among  others  who  meet  on  common  ground  for 
fellowship;  adjustment  of  differences  and  bet- 
terment of  relations  between  employers  and  em- 
ployees; to  bring  students  into  first-hand  con- 
tact with  life;  co-operative  relations  with  uni- 
versities and  professional  schools;  political  edu- 
cation and  action  through  non-partisan  organi- 
zation." 

Educational  Institutions.  Chicago  is  a  great 
center  of  learning,  some  of  its  educators  and 
schools  being  famous  throughout  the  world. 

The  Public  Schools  form  the  greatest  part  of 
the  educational  work  in  the  city,  employing  over 
6,000  teachers  and  instructing  about  300,000 
pupils.  All  this  is  free,  and  books  are  furnished 
those  who  are  unable  to  buy.  Kindergartens 
are  kept  in  such  districts  as  seem  most  to  need 
them.  Crippled  children 's  schools  have  omni- 
buses calling  for  the  children  and  taking  them 
home.  Subnormal  rooms  are  open  to  pupils  of 
low  mentality,  and  the  blind  and  deaf  are  taught 
skilfully  in  rooms  set  apart  for  their  benefit. 
Children  who  do  not  attend  school  regularly  and 
conduct  themselves  properly  may  be  sent  from 
the  Juvenile  court  to  the  Parental  school,  where 
they  remain  until  their  conduct  improves  enough 
to  warrant  their  return.  Boys  who  are  too  bad 
to  be  permitted  to  attend  at  the  Parental  school 
are  supplied  with  teaching  at  the  John  Worthy 
school,  in  connection  with  the  city  prison,  or  at 
the  farm  and  industrial  schools  at  Glenwood  and 
St.  Charles. 


Continuation  schools  are  maintained  for  those 
who  are  obliged  to  work  but  wish  to  continue 
their  studies.  Evening  schools  are  conducted 
during  the  winter  months  for  those  who  are 
employed  in  the  day,  many  adults  and  foreigners 
taking  advantage  of  their  work. 

The  Chicago  Normal  school  and  the  Normal 
practice  schools  give  free  training  in  the  art  of 
teaching. 

The  Board  of  Education  has  charge  of  all 
these  schools.  Its  offices  are  at  Dearborn  and 
Madison  streets,  where  the  superintendent  with 
a  large  corps  of  assistants  and  district  superin- 
tendents co-operates  with  the  president  of  the 
board  in  managing  this  great  branch  of  the 
government. 

A  compulsory  attendance  law  makes  it  the 
duty  of  all  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
to  attend  school  the  year  round.  Those  over 
fourteen  and  not  sixteen  are  obliged  to  work 
regularly  or  attend  school  unless  excused  for 
good  reasons  by  proper  authority. 

Free  vacation  schools  are  „  maintained  six 
weeks  each  summer,  and  a  beginning  has  been 
made  in  the  care  of  children  who  are  inclined 
to  illness  through  tubercular  troubles,  an  out- 
door school  having  been  maintained  during  the 
vacation  of  1909  in  conjunction  with  the  Chi- 
cago Tuberculosis  Institute,  where  children  were 
fed,  attended  by  nurses  and  teachers,  and  re- 
stored to  strength  and  health  sufficiently  to 
enable  them  to  attend  the  regular  schools  in 
September.  At  least  one  open-air  school  is  now 
provided  for  to  run  the  year  round  for  the  bene- 
fit of  children  predisposed  to  tuberculosis. 

The  whole  cost  of  the  public  schools  each  year 
is  about  $8,000,000. 

Parochial  and  Private  Schools  take  care  of  a 
large  number  of  children,  affording  in  many  in- 
stances superior  instruction  and  accommodations, 
and  giving  training  and  teaching  in  religious  or 
other  subjects  which  cannot  be  afforded  by 
schools  maintained  by  public  money. 

Colleges,  Universities  and  Seminaries.  There 
are  so  many  schools  of  higher  learning  that  we 
cannot  give  notice  to  all.  The  Chicago  Directory 
contains  many  names  which  are  not  here  listed. 
Armour  Institute  of  Technology,  Association  In- 
stitute, Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Baptist  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  Brooks  Classical  School  for  Girls,  Chi- 
cago Hebrew  Institute,  Chicago  Institute  of  So- 
cial Science,  Chicago  Lutheran  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  De  La  Salle 
Institute,  Garretfc  Biblical  Institute,  Hebrew 
Literary  Institute,  Holy  Family  Academy,  Jew- 
ish Training  School  of  Chicago,  Lewis  Institute, 
McCormick  Theological  Seminary,  Moody  Bible 
Institute,  Northwestern  University,  St.  Ignatius 
College,  St.  Viateur's  Normal  Institute,  Theo- 
logical Seminary  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church,  University  of  Chicago,  and  Western 
Theological  Seminary  are  some  of  the  leading 
ones. 

The  medical  schools  and  others  of  like  nature 


111 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND   NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


are  numerous  and  known  throughout  the  world 
for  effectual  work. 

Art  and  music  schools  of  many  kinds  and  great 
diversity  of  courses  make  Chicago  a  center  for 
artistic  training  in  many  lines. 

The  University  of  Chicago  is  eight  miles  from 
the  business  center  of  the  city  and  faces  the 
Midway  Plaisance.  Its  campus  covers  ninety- 
five  acres  and  cost  $4,217,553.  Its  thirty-one 
buildings  cost  about  $5,000,000.  Over  $30,000,- 
000  have  been  given  to  this  great  seat  of  learn- 
ing, largely  by  Mr.  J.  D.  Rockefeller. 

The  old  University  of  Chicago,  which  was 
founded  by  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  passed  out  of 


WILLIAM   RAINEY    HARPER. 

existence  in  1886.  The  new  one,  under  a  slight 
change  of  name,  has  been  a  real  university  from 
the  start.  Its  charter  makes  it  non-sectarian 
and  provides  that  no  religious  test  shall  ever  be 
applied  to  faculty  or  students. 

Among  those  who  have  given  largely  to  the 
university  besides  Mr.  Rockefeller  may  be  men- 
tioned William  B.  Ogden,  first  mayor  of  Chi- 
cago; Charles  T.  Yerkes,  Mrs.  Emmons  Elaine 
and  Miss  Helen  Culver.  The  two  last  named  are 


the  largest  givers  after  Mr.  Rockefeller,  giving 
over  $1,000,000  each. 

The  name  of  William  Rainey  Harper  rises  first 
in  the  minds  of  the  scholars  when  the  university 
is  mentioned,  for  it  was  by  his  influence  and 
labor  that  the  gifts  were  secured  to  make  it 
great.  He  guided  the  great  institution  up  to 
the  time  of  his  death  in  1906,  and  the  wisdom 
of  his  plans  is  becoming  more  and  more  ap- 
parent as  they  are  worked  out. 

.The  school  is  open  the  year  round,  and  the 
class  system  which  prevails  in  other  universities 
and  colleges,  where  four  years  are  taken  for  a 
course,  and  the  entire  class  is  expected  to  enter 
and  take  degrees  on  given  days,  is  largely  ig- 
nored. Students  enter  at  any  quarter,  select 
their  courses,  and  work  upon  them  as.  their  own 
convenience  and  ability  direct,  and  degrees  are 
given  whenever  students  have  finished  the 
courses  leading  to  them. 

The  summer  quarter  begins  June  15  and  offers 
the  same  advantages  as  the  winter  one.  This 
brings  to  the  university  hundreds  of  teachers 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  especially  those  en- 
gaged during  the  school  year. 

The  buildings  are  of  blue  Bedford  limestone 
and  their  style  is  English  Gothic.  The  Oxford 
plan  of  grouping  has  been  followed.  Mr.  Henry 
Ives  Cobb,  the  first  architect  of  the  university, 
made  the  first  water  color  sketch  of  how  he 
thought  the  buildings  should  look  when  placed 
about  the  quadrangle,  and  his  ideas  have  been 
closely  followed. 

Variations  of  the  style  adopted  make  the 
buildings  very  interesting.  The  Law  building 
is  closely  like  the  King's  college  at  Cambridge, 
England.  Bartlett  gymnasium,  Haskell  museum, 
Ryerson  physical  laboratory,  Hutchinson  hall, 
the  Reynolds  club,  Mandel  hall,  and  Mitchell 
tower,  all  named  for  donors,  give  great  diversity 
of  architecture.  Hutchinson  hall  is  like  Christ 
Church  hall  at  Oxford.  Mitchell  tower  is  almost 
a  copy  of  the  famous  tower  of  'Magdalen  college 
at  Oxford,  and  is  visible  from  all  parts  of  the 
campus.  It  has  a  chime  of  bells  considered  the 
finest  in  America.  Mandel  hall  is  a  complete 
theater  and  has  a  fine  pipe  organ. 

Marshall  field  is  the  outdoor  athletic  field  of 
the  university,  named  for  the  donor,  and  is  the 
scene  of  many  football  and  baseball  contests. 
At  the  opposite  end  of  the  campus  are  the  School 
of  Education  and  the  University  high  school. 
In  these,  pupils  are  taken  in  at  kindergarten  age 
and  given  complete  preparation  for  the  uni- 
versity. 

The  library  contains  461,000  volumes  and  170,- 
000  pamphlets.  Yerkes  observatory  is  located 
near  Lake  Geneva,  in  Wisconsin,  where  a  clearer 
atmosphere  and  less  vibration  of  the  earth  are 
found  than  in  the  vicinity  of  the  university. 
Its  famous  refracting  telescope  of  40-inch  aper- 
ture is  one  of  the  university 's  best  possessions. 

A  memorial  window  in  Bartlett  gymnasium  is 
one  of  the  finest  examples  of  stained  glass  art 


112 


THE  STOEY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


in  America.  It  represents  the  crowning  of  the 
wounded  Ivanhoe  after  the  tournament  at  Ashby. 
It  cost  $40,000. 

Northwestern  University  is  located  in  Evans- 
ton,  Chicago 's  greatest  suburb  on  the  north. 
But  the  law,  medical,  dental  and  pharmacy 
schools  are  in  Chicago.  This  university  is  con- 
sidered one  of  the  greatest  in  the  country  and 
it  occupies  a  site  along  the  lake,  which  will  be 
improved  so  as  to  be  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
educational  properties  in  the  world.  The  new 
engineering  courses  are  attracting  wide  atten- 
tion and  the  new  building  for  this  department 
is  suited  to  the  most  exacting  requirements.  A 
new  $100,000  gymnasium,  the  largest  in  the 
country,  the  gift  of  Mr.  James  A.  Patten,  is  in- 
tended to  make  Evanston  a  center  for  great 
athletic  events  and  afford  room  for  great  musical 
events  of  the  most  ambitious  kind. 

St.  Ignatius  College  and  Church  of  the  Holy 
Family  is  a  splendid  group  of  educational  and 
religious  buildings  which  are  considered  old  for 
Chicago,  the  parish  dating  from  1857  and  the 
college  building  from  1869.  There  is  a  library 
here  of  35,000  volumes,  with  some  rare  old  books, 
and  the  mineralogical  and  natural  history  mu 
seums  are  valuable.  The  parish  once  had  24,000 
Catholic  residents,  but  these  have  nearly  all  re- 
moved away  from  the  center  of  population  and 
Jewish  people  have  replaced  them.  The  church 
has  a  splendid  interior  with  beautiful  altars  and 
stations  of  the  cross,  rivaling  some  of  the  finest 
churches  in  Europe. 

Great  Libraries  abound  in  Chicago,  books 
enough  being  at  one's  service  to  pursue  almost 
every  line  of  research  or  information. 

The  Public  Library  occupies  a  splendid  build- 
ing at  Michigan  avenue  and  Washington  street. 
It  has  one  branch  library  at  Forty-ninth  street  i 
and  Lake  avenue,  seventy-five  delivery  stations, 
and  fifteen  branch  reading  rooms  in  parts  of  the , 
city  where  IfiOsfc-needed.     Over  350,000  volumes 
are  in  its  stacks  and  about  two  and  one-quarter 
millions  of  drawings  of  books  make  up  a  year's 
work. 

It  is  free  to  all  residents  of  the  city.  Books 
may  be  borrowed  at  the  main  building  or  at  any 
delivery  station  by  anyone  furnishing  a  guar- 
antee slip  signed  by  a  property  owner  securing 
the  return  of  the  book. 

The  building  is  stately  and  dignified.  It  is 
Eoman  classic  in  architecture,  built  of  blue  Bed 
ford  limestone,  and  dates  from  1897.  It  has 
110,000  square  feet  of  floor  space.  The  guide 
book  of  the  Chicago  Association  of  Commerce 
says  of  it,  "Entering  from  Washington  street 
the  visitor  passes  under  the  massive  elliptical 
marble  arch  of  the  main  staircase,  at  the  foot  of 
which  is  seen  in  the  floor  a  bronze  replica  of 
the  corporate  seal  of  Chicago.  The  elaborate 
decorations  and  designs  in  green  and  gold  are 
of  Tiffany  glass  mosaic.  At  the  head  of  the 
stairs  is  the  delivery  room,  134  by  48  feet,  fin- 
ished in  Italian  statuary  marble  from  the  fa- 


mous mines  of  Carrara,  inlaid  with  glass  mo- 
saic, mother-of-pearl,  and  semi-precious  stones, 
in  which  are  worked  devices  of  the  early  print- 
ers and  other  appropriate  emblems.  Specially 
to  be  noted  are  the  stained  glass  dome  and 
serpentine  marble  panels  containing  inscriptions 
in  ten  different  languages,  the  characters  inlaid 
in  white.  (Book,  price  5  cents,  at  desk,  gives 
translations.) 

<(On  the  top  floor  is  the  art  room  with  a 
superb  collection  of  works  on  art  and  art  criti- 
cism, many  rare  and  costly.  On  the  floor  below 
is  the  young  people's  reading  room  and  at  the 
end  of  the  corridor  is  the  reference  room,  where 
any  book  in  the  library  may  be  had  for  reference 
but  not  to  be  taken  away.  Ranged  around  the 
walls  are  encyclopedias,  atlases,  directories,  and 
dictionaries  in  all  the  principal  languages.  On 
the  same  floor  is  another  reading  room  supplied 
with  newspapers  from  every  important  city  in 
the  United  States  as  well  as  hundreds  of  maga- 
zines and  other  publications,  both  American  and 
foreign.  The  Grand  Army  rooms  and  Memorial 
hall,  with  museum  of  war  relics,  battle  flags  and 
portraits  of  prominent  military  men,  including 
a  life-size  oil  portrait  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  is  on 
the  second  floor  of  the  building.  The  main  floor 
is  conspicuous  for  the  spacious  hallway  fronting 
the  Randolph  street  entrance,  with  the  public 
document  room  on  the  right,  and  reading  room 
for  the  blind  on  the  left.  The  large  collection 
of  books  in  this  room  printed  with  raised  letters 
is  unusual  and  worthy  of  special  notice." 

The  Public  library  has  a  fine  collection  of  art 
books,  books  in  foreign  languages,  history, 
biography,  travel,  science,  and  the  fine  and  lib- 
eral arts.  Patent  records  of  the  United  States 
since  1790  may  be  consulted  here  as  well  as 
patent  records  of  other  countries. 

The  John  Crerar  Library  has  230,000  books 
and  70,000  pamphlets,  nearly  all  on  science. 
Books  may  not  be  borrowed  here  but  may  be 
used  freely  by  anyone  who  enters.  It  has  special 
places  for  those  who  wish  to  read  on  certain 
sciences,  its  medical  room  being  a  very  attrac- 
tive one  for  physicians  and  students.  It  re- 
ceives over  100,000  visits  of  readers  every  year. 
This  library  is  the  gift  of  one  of  Chicago 's 
merchant  princes  and  it  co-operates  with  the 
Public  and  Newberry  libraries  so  that  duplicates 
of  rare  works  are  not  purchased.  The  three 
libraries  may  be  looked  upon  as  three  depart- 
ments of  one  great  institution  and  readers  in- 
terested in  different  subjects  visit  different  li- 
braries to  do  their  work  among  the  books. 

The  Newberry  Library  has  a  noble  building  on 
Washington  square,  a  beautiful  small  park.  Con- 
necticut granite  is  used  in  the  structure,  which 
is  of  the  Spanish  Romanesque  style.  Two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  books,  pamphlets  and  maps  are 
cared  for  here  and  skilled  attendants  wait  upon 
the  visitor  with  valuable  information  as  to  where 
to  look  for  what  is  desired. 

History,    biography    and    genealogy    are    the 


113 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


main  subjects  covered.  The  guide  book  of  the 
Association  of  Commerce  says,  "Entering,  the 
visitor  passes  through  a  vestibule  of  colored 
marble  into  a  spacious  hail  in  which  are  por- 
traits of  noted  persons.  Noteworthy  are  the  re- 
lief panels  depicting  La  Salle's  march  through 
Illinois,  3680;  Benedictine  monks  at  work  on 
manuscripts,  1456,  and  the  Fort  Dearborn  mas- 
sacre, 1812.  Opening  from  this  hall  is  the  check 
room,  where  hats,  wraps,  etc.,  are  checked  free 
of  charge,  and  (Room  12)  the  museum  contain- 
ing copies  of  very  ancient  manuscripts  in 
Arabic,  Turkish,  Chinese,  Dutch,  English,  French, 
German,  Italian,  Hebrew,  Spanish,  and  many  in 
Latin  from  the  twelfth  century  down.  Also 
Pali,  written  on  palm  leaves,  Sanskrit,  and 
Persian.  There  is  also  a  collection  of  fine  bind- 
ings and  very  rare  books,  including  illuminated 
manuscripts  and  other  rarities  of  great  interest 
to  the  book  lover.  Opening  off  this  room  is  the 
private  collection  of  Edward  E.  Ayer,  containing 
one  of  the  most  complete  libraries  on  the  Amer- 
ican Indian  extant.  In  the  history  room  (third 
floor)  is  a  very  complete  collection  of  books 
bearing  on  historical  matters;  also  a  complete 
genealogical  index  by  means  of  which  any  Amer- 
ican family  may  trace  the  written  history  of  its 
various  branches,  if  such  there  are.  The  collec- 
tion of  foreign  and  American  magazines  in  an- 
other room  is  very  extensive  and  will  also  be 
of  interest  to  many.  The  whole  library  is  full 
of  interesting  things  and  much  time  may  be 
spent  here  profitably." 

The  Chicago  Historical  Society  library  occu- 
pies its  own  elegant  building  at  Dearborn  ave- 
nue and  Ontario  street.  On  week  days  from  9 
till  5  visitors  may  freely  enter  its  library,  mu- 
seum and  portrait  gallery.  It  contains  a  great 
collection  of  matter  and  objects  pertaining  to 
the  history  of  Chicago  and  the  Northwest.  There 
are  40,000  volumes,  75,000  pamphlets,  and  many 
maps,  views,  etc. 

The  Ryerson  library  in  the  Art  Institute  has 
5,100  volumes  on  art  and  16,000  Braun  artotypes. 
The  Academy  of  Sciences  library  has  28,000  vol- 
umes and  pamphlets.  The  Field  Museum  library 
is  a  scientific  one  for  reference  only — 45,000 
vol.  All  the  educational  institutions  have  their 
own  special  collections  of  books,  and  Evanston, 
Pullman  and  other  suburbs  have  choice  public 
libraries. 

Hospitals  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  city 
and  there  is  room  for  every  one  needing  special 
treatment,  whether  the  patient  has  unlimited 
means  and  demands  the  most  elaborate  care  or 
is  unable  to  pay  at  all. 

The  Cook  County  hospital  and  morgue  occupy 
a  whole  city  block.  The  only  requirement  for 
admission  is  that  the  patient  be  unable  to  pay 
for  treatment.  Everything  is  free  and  small 
pox  cases  are  the  only  ones  refused.  Seventy 
physicians  and  surgeons  attend  these  patients 
and  forty-eight  house  physicians,  internes,  assist. 
Two  hundred  nurses  are  required  and  two  hun- 


dred and  forty  other  employees  to  care  for  the 
1,100  patients  who  fill  the  wards  as  a  daily 
average.  About  one  dollar  a  day  is  the  expense 
of  treatment,  board,  etc.,  of  a  patient  here,  and 
this  is  all  provided  for  by  taxation,  so  that  no 
money  is  accepted  from  the  patients. 

Contagious  diseases  are  cared  for  separately 
by  the  city  health  department.  Diphtheria  and 
measles  are  treated  at  the  contagious  hospital 
at  34th  street  and  Lawndale  avenue.  Smallpox 
cases  are  taken  at  the  Isolation  hospital  one 
block  south  of  the  Contagious  hospital. 

The  Home  for  Incurables  takes  all  kinds  of 
hopeless  cases  and  charges  in  accordance  with 
the  means  of  the  patients.  It  has  about  275 
patients  usually.  It  is  located  at  5535  Ellis 
avenue,  and  is  a  place  where  the  cheery  visitor 
may  be  of  great  benefit  at  any  time. 

The  County  Detention  Hospital,  Wood  and 
Polk  streets,  is  an  asylum  for  the  insane,  the 
feeble-minded,  and  the  epileptic.  It  is  sup- 
ported by  taxation.  Patients  found  suitable  for 
admission  to  the  Dunning  asylum  are  sent  there 
after  a  short  residence  at  this  hospital. 

The  Home  for  Destitute  and  Crippled  Children, 
46  Park  avenue,  is  supported  by  gifts  from  the 
public.  Boys  between  the  ages  of  three  and 
twelve  years  and  girls  between  three  and  fifteen 
are  given  a  home  and  education  here  and  the 
gifts  received  from  charitable  people  are  the 
only  means  of  maintaining  the  work.  The  Out- 
ing and  Luncheon  Association  gives  crippled 
children  hot  dinners  during  the  school  year, 
clothing,  and  other  necessities  to  getting  an  in- 
dustrial education,  and  sends  them  to  the  coun- 
try for  a  portion  of  the  summer.  It  is  main- 
tained solely  by  gifts  from  those  who  have  sym- 
pathy for  the  sufferers,  whose  lives  are  made  less 
tedious  by  their  kindness. 

There  are  many  institutions  in  the  city  which 
give  relief  to  the  unfortunate  and  depend  on 
gifts  for  their  support.  Sometimes  givers  refuse 
to  give  their  names  because  so  many  other  good 
causes  are  ready  to  ask  for  help,  but  such  gener- 
osity and  kindness  are  found  among  the  citizens 
of  Chicago  that  all  are  provided  for  and  others 
are  organized  as  need  arises.  Most  of  those  who 
give  are  not  rich  and  their  charity  is  the  more 
real  because  it  calls  for  self-denial. 

Churches.  Of  the  1,077  churches  in  Chicago 
it  is  possible  to  speak  only  in  a  general  way. 
By  consulting  the  city  directory  (see  index  for 
"Churches")  one  may  locate  those  of  any  de- 
sired denomination. 

The  Sunday  Evening  Club  meets  in  Orchestra 
Hall  every  Sunday  evening  from  October  to 
July.  It  provides  a  religious  service  with  elab- 
orate music  without  any  denominational  or  sec- 
tarian features.  As  the  loop  district  is  largely 
taken  up  with  business  buildings,  churches  have 
generally  removed  to  the  neighborhoods  of 
homes,  and  this  club  is  specially  planned  for 
persons  stopping  at  the  hotels  near.  Business 


114 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


men  support  the  club  and  speakers  of  national 
reputation  are  frequently  secured.  A  large 
chorus  is  skilfully  drilled  and  is  a  leading  fea- 
ture of  the  work.  The  average  attendance  ex- 
ceeds 2,000. 

Notre  Dame  de  Chicago,  Oregon  avenue  and 
Sibley  street,  the  beautiful  French  Catholic 
church,  is  open  daily.  It  has  a  circular  audi- 
torium with  altars  of  Carrara  marble.  The  main 
altar  has  a  baldachin  in  copper  and  gilt  sup- 
ported by  two  large  marble  pillars.  The  altar 
rail  and  the  four  side  altars  are  of  marble.  The 
organ  is  large  and  fine.  Beautiful  stained  glass 
windows  with  life-size  figures  impress  the  wor- 
shiper. The  Sunday  service  at  11  o'clock  is  in 
French,  but  other  services  are  mixed. 

Central  Church  is  a  church  without  a  building. 
It  is  a  great  body  of  Chicago's  citizens  who 
worship  in  a  theater  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 
At  11  o'clock  every  Sunday  morning,  except  in 
the  summer,  Dr.  Frank  W.  Gunsaulus  preaches 
from  the  stage  'of  the  Auditorium  to  great  audi- 
ences, largely  men.  A  large  chorus  with  noted 
soloists  and  the  great  organ  add  to  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  service.  The  doors  are  open  at 
10:30  and  the  organist  renders  several  selections 
while  the  people  are  quietly  entering,  though 


most  of  the  congregation  get  in  before  he  begins 
his  program.    ,  • 

Some  of  the  leading  churches  of  the  different 
denominations  are  named  in  the  following  list: 
Baptist,  Immanuel,  Michigan  avenue  and 
Twenty-third  street;  Christian,  Jackson  Boule- 
vard church,  1010  West  Jackson  boulevard;  Con- 
gregational, First,  Washington  boulevard  and 
Ann  street;  Independent,  Moody 's,  Chicago  and 
La  Salle  avenues;  Lutheran,  Holy  Trinity,  La 
Salle  avenue  and  Elm  street;  Jewish,  Sinai,  In- 
diana avenue  and  Twenty-first  street;  Christian 
Scientist,  First,  4017  Drexel  boulevard;  Meth- 
odist Episcopal,  St.  James,  Ellis  avenue  and 
Forty-sixth  street;  Presbyterian,  Fourth,  Rush 
and  Superior  streets;  Protestant  Episcopal, 
Grace,  1439  Wabash  avenue;  St.  James,  Cass  and 
Huron  streets;  Reformed  Episcopal,  Christ, 
Michigan  avenue  and  Twenty-fourth  street;  St. 
Paul's,  Winchester  avenue  and  Adams  street; 
Roman  Catholic,  Cathedral  of  the  Holy  Name, 
Superior  and  North  State  streets;  St.  Mary's, 
Wabash  avenue  and  Eldredge  court;  Unitarian, 
Third,  Monroe  street. near  Kedzie  avenue;  Uni- 
versalist,  Church  of  the  Redeemer,  Warren  ave- 
nue and  Robey  street. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


Grant  Park. 

In  its  early  days  the  Illinois  Central  railroad 
did  not  wish  to  disturb  the  people  of  Chicago 
in  any  way;  so  it  crept  into  the  city  on  piles 
driven  into  the  sands  of  Lake  Michigan.  This 
was  a  very  modest  way  for  a  railroad  to  enter 
a  city,  for  it  crossed  no  streets  and  tore  down 
no  buildings  to  prepare  the  right  of  way.  As 
time  went  on  the  railroad  put  on  fast  trains 
and  express  service  so  that  people  living  near 
the  lake  shore  anywhere  south  of  the  main  part 
of  Chicago  could  get  into  town  in  a  few  minutes. 
As  there  were  no  street  crossings  to  speak  of 
the  trains  were  run  at  a  great  speed,  and  people 
said  that  Chicago  had  the  best  way  of  getting 
its  people  down  town  of  all  the  cities  of  the 
world. 

But  when  the  railroad  began  to  fill  up  part 
of  the  lake  with  dirt,  sand  and  rubbish,  and  in 
this  way  get  hold  of  land  which  they  did  not 
pay  for,  there  was  trouble,  for  the  great  lake 
opposite  the  city  does  not  belong  to  any  com- 
.pany;  the  whole  United  States  has  something 
to  say  about  the  filling  in  of  any  water  which 
is  deep  enough  for  boats.  When  our  city  be- 


came large  enough  to  take  pride  in  elegant 
buildings  and  pleasant  driveways  we  were 
ashamed  of  the  looks  of  our  lake  front.  We 
thought  we  had  given  the  railroad  too  much 
when  we  let  it  cut  off  all  streets  leading  down 
to  the  lake  so  we  could  not  get  to  it  without 
crossing  dangerous  tracks.  And  when  the  rail- 
road put  up  signs  to  keep  people  away  and  for- 
bade the  public  to  cross  the  tracks  many  per- 
sons felt  that  it  did  not  pay  a  city  to  have  such 
an  elegant  means  of  getting  some  of  its  people 
to  town  when  it  kept  so  many  of  them  out  of 
their  natural  rights  to  pass  down  to  the  water 
front. 

The  picture  taken  in  1868  from  Michigan 
avenue  looking  to  the  northeast  was  good  enough 
for  those  who  thought  of  business  only,  but  to 
people  who  had  some  thoughts  of  the  rights  of 
poor  people  and  of  the  value  of  beauty  in  a  city 
it  was  a  dismal-looking  scene.  It  is  true,  you 
could  in  those  days  get  down  to  the  water,  for 
the  railroad  was  far  out  in  the  lake,  but  your 
view  was  cut  off  and  if  you  took  a  sail  you  had 
to  use  a  boat  with  short  masts  in  order  to  get 
under  the  railroad. 


From  an  old  wood  cut. 

NORTHERN  PART  OF  THE  SITE  OF  GRANT  PARK  IN  1868. 

116 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


But  now  all  this  has  been  changed.  A  large 
park  has  been  made  by  filling  part  of  the  lake 
with  earth  and  all  sorts  of  refuse  not  dangerous 
to  public  health,  and  on  top  of  it,  after  grading 
and  smoothing  it  in  the  most  agreeable  manner, 
soil  has  been  put  so  that  trees  and  grass  will 
grow.  Much  planting  has  been  done  to  make 
the  park  beautiful.  It  has  been  named  after 
General  Grant.  It  extends  from  Randolph 
street  on  the  north  to  near  Twelfth  street,  a 
mile  away  to  the  south,  and  it  reaches  out  far 
beyond  the  tracks  of  the  railroad,  so  that  it  is 
about  a  third  of  a  mile  wide. 

Grant  Park  has  about  205  acres  of  land  within 
its  boundaries,  and  it  has  taken  so  much  earth 
to  fill  in  the  lake  and  build  up  the  solid  ground 


have  electric  engines  before  long,  and  that  will 
take  away  the  worst  of  the  smoke  which  row 
hurts  these  beautiful  trees,  and  we  hope  the 
whole  city  will  find  ways  of  getting  heat,  light 
and  power  without  making  as  much  smoke  as 
is  now  made,  and  that  will  not  only  make  Grant 
Park  more  beautiful,  but  will  make  the  whole 
city  better  for  human  and  plant  life. 

The  trees  are  of  course  planted  mainly  along 
the  walks  and  driveways.  They  have  been  set 
with  an  eye  to  showing  off  their  beauty.  By 
looking  at  the  plans  pictured  here  you  will  see 
that  they  look  very  much  better  than  if  they 
had  been  put  into  rows  all  over  the  park.  The 
beauty  of  trees  often  lies  largely  in  the  way 
they  show  themselves  to  you  from  near  and  dis- 


ART 
INSTITUTE. 


FIELD 
MUSEUM 


CRERAR 
LIBRARY 


MONUMENT 


MODEL  OF  GRANT  PARK  USED  AS  A  BASIS  OF  STUDY. 


that  it  is  hard  to  think  out  the  meaning  of  the 
figures.      Here    are    the    amounts    of    earth    that 
were  dumped  there  during  the  year  1907: 
From  the  contractors,  at   10  cents 

per    cubic    yard .- 313,016  cu.  yd. 

From  the  Illinois  Tunnel  Company, 

at  no  cost 188,852  cu.  yd. 

From   wagon    delivery   by   various 

parties,    at    no   cost 208,317  cu.  yd. 


Total  during  the  year 710,185  cu.  yd. 

The  entire  cost  of  this  filling  was  $40,572.21. 
It  averages  5.71  cents  per  cubic  yard.  It  was 
necessary  to  lay  railroads  around  through  the 
park  and  run  special  dirt  trains  all  over  the 
park  to  carry  the  filling  and  top  dressing.  When 
the  ground  was  filled  to  the  right  height  it  was 
finished  off  by  grading  and  a  dressing  of  black 
earth  was  put  upon  it  to  the  depth  of  eighteen 
inches,  so  grass  and  shrubs  might  grow  where 
required.  In  1907  27.7  acres  were  dressed  in 
tliis  manner,  and  it  took  51,238  cubic  yards  of 
black  earth. 

Tree  Planting.  As  soon  as  the  ground  was 
ready  for  planting  334  fine  elm  trees  were 
bought  and  planted  there.  The  trees  were  from 
seven  to  eight  inches  in  diameter,  pretty  large 
trees  to  plant  in  this  way.  The  park  commis- 
sioners bought  these  large  trees  because  they 
wanted  to  have  the  park  look  good  without 
waiting  a  long  time  for  the  trees  to  grow.  It 
is  expected  that  the  trees  will  grow  slowly  in 
the  smoky  air  of  Chicago,  but  the  railroad  is  to 


tant  views,  and  a  square  setting  of  them  has 
been  found  not  pleasing.  Men  who  study  this 
art  are  called  landscape  gadeners. 

To  give  our  trees  a  better  chance  to  live  than 
they  might  have  if  planted  in  only  eighteen 
inches  of  soil,  each  tree  has  had  dug  for  it  a 
pit  or  a  trench  ten  feet  by  twenty  feet  in  size 
and  four  feet  deep.  This  gives  the  elm  more 
rich  earth  to  live  upon  than  is  found  in  the 
forests  where  elms  grow  naturally,  and  we  hope, 
in  spite  of  the  smoke  and  bad  air  of  the  city, 
our  elms  will  grow  finely  and  make  us  glad  with 
their  pleasing  view  and  the  shade  they  will 
give  in  the  summer  time.  The  pits  in  which 
our  trees  are  set  are  provided  with  water  and 
drainage  so  there  may  at  all  times  be  just  as 
much  water  as  they  need  for  healthy  growth 
without  any  danger  of  their  getting  drowned 
out  by  too  much  water  standing  about  the  roots. 

The  elm  is  often  spoken  of  as  the  "artist's 
tree"  because  it  has  such  graceful,  feathery 
lines.  As  you  look  at  an  elm  standing  alone  in 
a  field  you  see  its  trunk  rise  from  a  rather 
wide  stump  to  a  graceful  stem  which  runs  well 
up  towards  the  sky  before  any  limb  or  branch 
appears  upon  it.  Then  instead  of  sending  its 
branches  out  at  right  angles  from  the  trunk  it 
parts  into  two  or  more  large  limbs.  These  di- 
vide into  several  branches  smaller  than  them- 
selves, reaching  out  to  where  the  twigs  are 
thickest  and  turning  towards  the  earth  so  the 
leaves  may  hang  down  towards  the  ground  and 
swing  in  such  charming  style  that  it  is  no  won- 


117 


THE    STORY    OF    CHICAGO    AND    NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


iler  that  artists  delight  in  drawing  the  forms  of 
tims  and  in  painting  the  beautiful  shades  of 
green,  gray  and  brown  found  in  the  leaves  and 
the  trunks  and  branches.  Even  the  shadow  of 
the  tree  as  it  falls  upon  the  grass  or  against 
a  nearby  building  is  full  of  graceful  lines.  And 
so,  as  we  enjoy  these  elms,  we  may  be  thankful 
that  the  art  of  landscape  gardening  has  been 
studied  so  much  that  our  new  trees  in  Grant 
Park  will  delight  all  who  look  at  them. 

Model  of  Grant  Park.  The  model  of  the  park 
was  made  to  help  the  architects,  the  landscape 
gardeners  and  the  commissioners  in  their  study 


building,  and  the  funds  left  to  enlarge  and 
maintain  it  have  grown  to  about  three  and  one- 
half  million  dollars  besides  the  million  for  the 
building  to  hold  the  library. 

This  library  is  not  intended  for  those  who 
read  for  amusement,  or  for  those  who  study  an- 
cient languages;  but  it  gives  everything  anyone 
can  wish  in  science  and  the  practical  subjects 
of  society,  nature  and  the  works  of  man.  The 
records  of  the  library  show  that  most  of  the 
books  and  papers  used  there  by  the  people  who 
are  enjoying  its  privileges  are  in  the  department 
of  applied  science,  such  as  electrical,  mechanical 


FRONT  ELEVATION  OF  THE  PROPOSED  JOHN  CRERAR  LIBRARY  BUILDING. 

The  structure  is  to  be  erected  in  Grant  Park.      The  late  John  Crerar  endowed  the  library. 
The  trustees  have  a  building  fund  of  $1,000,000. 


of  the  ground  and  the  buildings.  No  one  can 
tell  from  a  flat  drawing  how  a  park  is  going  to 
look,  especially  when  it  must  have  buildings 
and  places  for  students  and  people  looking  for 
recreation  and  pleasure.  This  model  is  on  view 
at  the  Art  Institute  and  has  been  of  much  use 
in  making  the  plans.  You  will  see  that  the 
railroad  is  covered  over  in  the  model.  This  is 
to  show  what  may  be  done  when  the  railroad 
does  not  have  to  burn  coal  or  coke  to  get  up 
steam.  With  electric  engines  it  can  run  under 
cover  and  not  trouble  its  passengers  with  smoke 
or  steam. 

The  Art  Institute  is  now  the  principal  build- 
ing upon  the  park;  but  two  other  noble  build- 
ings have  been  provided  for  and  will  be  placed 
south  of  the  Institute  at  proper  distances  to 
make  the  view  agreeable  and  imposing.  The 
Field  Museum  of  Natural  History  is  to  be  built 
at  the  most  central  place  in  Grant  Park,  and 
when  it  is  ready  for  use  the  World  'a  Fair  fine 
arts  building  will  be  vacated.  The  money  left 
by  Marshall  Field  for  the  museum  amounts  to 
about  four  million  dollars. 

The  John  Crerar  Library.  One  million  dollars 
will  be  expended  in  erecting  a  building  for  the 
John  Crerar  Library,  which  was  first  opened  to 
the  public  in  the  Field  building,  at  the  corner 
of  Washington  street  and  Wabash  avenue,  in 
1897.  It  now  occupies  two  entire  floors  of  that 


and  civil  engineering,  drawing  and  designing, 
trade  and  transportation,  manufacture,  architec- 
ture, and  such  subjects.  The  attendance  is 
largest  in  the  evenings  and  on  holidays,  showing 
that  those  who  use  the  library  most  are  work- 
men, mechanics,  teachers,  architects,  engineers, 
electricians,  and  those  who  are  busy  during  the 
day  but  desire  to  make  themselves  more  success- 
ful in  their  own  work. 

The  trustees  are  making  the  library  the  meet- 
ing place  for  all  the  scientific  societies  in  the 
West.  The  new  buildings  are  to  have  a  number 
of  rooms  and  lecture  halls  which  will  be  given 
to  such  societies  without  charge,  provided  that 
the  results  of  those  meetings,  when  printed, 
shall  be  placed  in  the  library  for  the  use  of 
others. 

Mr.  Crerar  wished  this  building  to  be  placed 
in  Chicago,  and  he  preferred  that  it  should  be 
on  the  South  Side  because  the  Newberry  Library 
is  on  the  North  Side.  So  this  splendid  building 
with  its  impressive  classical  architecture  is  to  be 
placed  at  Congress  street,  where  its  books  may 
be  near  at  hand  for  people  of  the  South  Side. 
It  will  be  large  enough  to  hold  1,000,000  books, 
and  when  it  is  filled  there  will  be  a  space  left  on 
the  grounds  for  making  the  building  larger  with- 
out spoiling  its  looks.  The  additions  are  to  be 
made  in  the  shape  of  wings. 

Athletics.      East    of    the    tracks,    beside    the 


118 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


large  meadows  which  can  be  used  for  games, 
there  will  be  indoor  and  outdoor  gymnasiums,  a 
quarter-mile  track,  and  a  swimming  basin  so 
that  those  who  now  use  the  small  space  north 
of  the  Art  Institute  will  have  plenty  of  room 
for  exercise  at  such  times  in  the  day  as  they 
can  get  away  from  their  work  in  the  heart  of 
the  city. 

On  the  south  line  of  the  park,  near  the  rail- 
road, will  be  the  stables,  offices,  sheds  and  other 
buildings  for  park  work. 

Along  the  water  front  is  a  great  avenue  or 
mall,  for  driving  and  walking,  shaded  by  six 
rows  of  trees  and  overlooking  the  quay,  or 


to  be  a  fountain  with  a  separate  symbolic  figure 
representing  each  lake. 

Lincoln  Park  has  the  most  conspicuous  exam- 
ple of  American  sculpture.  It  is  at  the  south 
entrance.  It  is  Augustus  St.  Gaudens'  heroic 
figure  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  is  mounted  on 
pink  granite  in  a  semicircle  of  the  same  stone. 
This  has  received  the  highest  praise  of  both 
American  and  European  critics.  Hans  Christian 
Andersen,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 
Beethoven,  Garibaldi,  Goethe,  La  Salle,  Linne, 
Schiller,  and  Shakespere  are  represented,  and  the 
symbolic  pieces,  "The  Signal  of  Peace"  and 
"The  Alarm,"  are  excellent. 


FIELD  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

This  structure  is  to  be  erected  in  Grant  Park  at  a  cost  of  $4,000,000,  provided  in  the  will  of 
Marshall  Field.  The  main  elevation,  here  reproduced,  is  from  the  design  submitted  by  the  trus- 
tees and  accepted  and  approved  by  the  South  Park  Commissioners. 


strand,  which  forms  the  margin  of  Lake  Mich- 
igan. Rising  towards  each  end,  the  mall  ends 
at  the  north  and  south  edges  of  the  park  in 
great  squares  where  shelters  and  places  of  re- 
freshment will  be  built.  These  will  be  cool  and 
beautiful  and  many  people  who  have  no  front 
verandahs  at  their  homes  will  be  glad  to  spend 
much  of  their  spare  time  in  the  summer  out  of 
doors  where  health  and  pleasure  may  be  had. 
Boats  will  be  kept  there  for  the  public,  and  yacht 
and  boat  clubs  will  have  places  for  their  own 
enjoyment. 

Grant  Park  will  be  the  central  beauty  spot  of 
the  inner  park  system.  It  will  be  connected 
with  Lincoln  Park  by  a  boulevard,  and  a  fine 
driveway  will  be  built,  at  least  a  thousand  feet 
out  in  the  lake,  running  from  the  southern  cor- 
ner of  Grant  Park  around  through  the  water  to 
Jackson  Park. 

Monuments  are  to  be  erected  in  Chicago  to 
adorn  the  boulevards  and  parks.  The  trustees 
of  the  Art  Institute  hold  in  trust  the  Benjamin 
F.  Ferguson  bequest  of  $1,000,000  for  this  pur- 
pose. The  Municipal  Art  League  has  done  much 
to  educate  the  public  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
work  to  be  done.  The  lives  of  worthy  men  and 
women  are  to  be  commemorated  and  important 
events  in  American  history.  The  first  use  of  the 
fund  is  to  purchase  and  erect  a  beautiful  group 
of  statuary  by  the  famous  Chicago  sculptor, 
Lorado  Taft,  called  "The  Great  Lakes."  It  is 


Humboldt  Park  has  monuments  to  Humboldt, 
Leif  Ericson,  Reuter,  and  Kosciusko.  Union 
park  has  a  statue  of  Carter  H.  Harrison  and  the 
monument  to  the  hero  policemen  who  suffered 
in  the  Haymarket  riot.  This  piece  was  first  set 
up  on  the  scene  of  the  riot,  but  obstructed  traffic- 
so  that  it  was  removed  to  Union  Park.  In  Gar- 
field  Park  are  monuments  to  Queen  Victoria  and 
Robert  Burns. 

General  John  A.  Logan  is  remembered  in  a 
fine  equestrian  statue  in  Grant  Park.  McKinley 
Park  honors  its  martyred  namesake.  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  stands  on  a  tall  marble  column  at  the 
foot  of  Thirty-fifth  street. 

Cahokia  Court  House  is  one  of  the  sights  of 
the  Wooded  island  in  Jackson  Park.  It  is  the 
oldest  public  building  in  the  Mississippi  valley 
and  was  built  in  1716  at  Cahokia,  St.  Glair 
c-ounty,  Illinois.  It  was  a  public  building  under 
three  flags,  the  French,  the  British,  and  the 
American.  At  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposi- 
tion in  St.  Louis  this  was  made  an  exhibit.  Then 
Miss  Valentine  Smith,  city  archivist  in  Chicago, 
brought  it  to  its  present  site.  It  is  made  of 
squared  walnut  logs  set  on  end  in  the  style  of 
the  early  French  stockade,  the  logs  held  together 
with  wooden  pins. 

Because  it  marked  the  beginning  of  civil  gov- 
ernment in  this  region  the  newly  created  Mu- 
nicipal Court  of  Chicago  held  its  first  session 


119 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


there  December  6,  1906.  The  twenty-eight  judges 
at  that  session  received  their  commissions  :rom 
the  state  and  the  first  order  of  the  new  court 
was  entered  in  the  old  building. 

The  flags  of  three  nations  float  over  it  every 
day  and  many  students,  historians  and  school 
children  view  it  with  pride.  Its  collection  of 
photographs  of  original  documents  pertaining  to 
its  history  makes  the  place  still  more  interest- 
ing. 

The  Convent  of  La  Rabida,  reproduced  like  the 
Spanish  shelter  of  Columbus,  stands  at  the  south 
end  of  Jackson  Park.  It  is  an  outing  place  for 
sick  babies  in  summer.  Replicas  of  the  ships 


Nina,  Pinta,  and  Santa  Maria  lie  at  anchor  in 
the  lagoon  near.  Columbus  is  further  remem- 
bered by  a  great  business  building  which  w;is 
erected  on  State  street  in  1892.  A  bronze  statue 
by  Ezekiel  is  over  the  entrance  and  the  mosaic 
floor  and  panels  tell  his  story. 

The  Marquette-Joliet  Memorial  Cross  is  solid 
mahogany,  fourteen  feet  high,  where  the  Chicago 
river  flows  into  the  Drainage  canal  at  Robey 
street.  It  commensurates  the  visit  of  Father 
Marquette  and  Louis  Joliet  to  the  site  of  Chi- 
cago in  1673,  and  is  erected  on  the  spot  where 
Father  Marquette  spent  the  winter  of  1674-5. 


INDEX 


Abenakis,    13. 
Acadia,  25. 
Addams,   Jane,   110. 
Advantages  of  the  location 

of  Chicago,  60-2-5-70. 
Adventures,      Strange      of, 

Jean    Nicolet,    1. 
Alarm,  The,  126. 
Algonquin,    4-5,    6,    7,    11, 

13,    14,    Algonquins,    26, 

31,   tribes,  3. 
Alleghanies,    27. 
Allouez,   Father   Claude,    5. 
Altars    in    the    Wilderness. 

Daring  and   Devotion   of 

the   Missionaries,   5. 
American   Fur  Co.,  43,  44. 
Andersen,    126. 
Apostle   Islands,   6. 
Archer,   Colonel,  56. 
Archer  road,  56. 
Arkansas  river,  1. 
Arnold.    Dr.    Isaac    N.,    87. 
Art  Institute.   8,   110,   125. 
Ashland   Avenue,   0. 
Ashland,    Wis.,   5. 
Asiatic   cholera,  48. 
Aurora,  11. 
Bablon,   Father.   5,   6. 
Kayfleld,    Wis.,   5. 
Kay  of  Mackinac,  11. 
Beaujeau,    15. 
Beaunien,     Jean     Baptiste, 

43.  46,  48,  53,  64. 
Beaubien,  Mark,  44,  46. 
Beaubien,    Medore,   46,    52. 
Beethoven,  126. 
Big   Sea  Water,  5. 
Bitoxi,    17,     21.       Indians, 
Black  Hawk,  49  ;  war,  47  ; 

cause   of.   47  ;   war  over, 

49  ;  provoked  to  war,  48. 
Black    Partridge.    36. 
Black  Watch,  27. 
Blaine,  Mrs.   Emmons,  112. 
Blue    and    Gray    Sleep    To- 
gether,  76. 
Blue   Island,   8. 
Board    of    Education,    111. 
Board  of  Trade  Bldg..  12. 
Boisbrlant,     Sieur     Duoue, 

19,   20. 

Boisrondet,  Father,   13. 
Boone,  Daniel,  27. 
Boyhood    of    John    Kinzie, 

36. 

Brainard.  Dr.,  55. 
Breese,    Judge    Sidney,    63, 
Bridge,  first  floating  swing, 

66. 

Bross.   Gov.,   66. 
Buffaloes,    10. 
Bull-boats,  43. 
Bullets,   22. 
Burlington       Depot,       46 ; 


railroad.   11. 

Burned — Record    Law,    93. 

Burnett,  Wm.,  34. 

Burns.    126. 

Cadillac,    18. 

Cahokia,    126. 

Cahokias,    16,    18,    20,    25. 

Cairo,  63,  64. 

Calumet  lake.  8.  14,  69. 

Camp  Douglas.   76. 

Canada,  2,  4.  13. 

Canal,  Drainage,  9,  10, 
104  ;  Erie,  43  :  Illinois, 
10;  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan opened,  62 ;  Michi- 
gan, 10. 

Canoes,    6,    7. 

Cape   Breton   Island,   24. 

Care  of  Streets,   69. 

Cartier,   Jacques,   1. 

Caton,   John   Dean,    51. 

Center  Avenue.   9.   10. 

Central   Church,   121. 

Champlain,  Father  of  New- 
France,  3,  4. 

Champlain,   Lake,   3. 

Cheesebrough,   E.   S.,  69. 

Chequamegon   Bay,   5,   6. 

Chicago,  6,  7,  8,  14.  17, 
19,  30,  31,  32.  33,  35, 
39,  45;  all  Sham  and 
Shingles,  79 ;  a  Squalid 
Town,  66 :  began  to 
build  again,  94 ;  begin- 
ning of  first  boom,  49 ; 
Changes  with  Changing 
Times,  68 ;  Commons, 
111 ;  Continues  to  Grow, 
78 ;  Courted  Disaster, 
79;  Fire,  83;  First 
Boom,  49 ;  First  Boom 
Arrives,  52 ;  First  Rail- 
way Promoted,  60  :  First 
Schools,  67 :  First  Sky- 
Scrapers,  95  ;  Gets  City 
Conveniences,  70  ;  Grant 
Park.  116.  118;  His- 
torical Library,  10,  114; 
Hydraulic  Company,  67  ; 
In  1836,  54 ;  Knows 
What  to  Do  and  Does 
It,  91 ;  Needed  Vig- 
ilance, 80  :  Panic  of  '73, 
94 ;  Paving  Problem, 
69 ;  Pickle  Farm,  104 ; 
Platted  by  Canal  Com- 
missioners, 45  :  Postage, 
16;  Portage,  10,  13.  14, 
22;  Quota  Was  Full, 
74;  River.  7,  8.  9.  32, 
56,  69  :  Ruined  City.  88  ; 
Sky-Scraper  Beautiful, 
97  :  Spirit,  59  :  Strikes. 
101  :  Tin-  Name  of.  42  ; 
Trade  Changes  and  Ex- 


pands, 70 ;  Trolley  Ride, 
104 ;  Wrar  Heroes,  74. 

Chickasaw  Indians,  15,  18. 

Chickasaws,    22. 

Chillicothe,    31. 

Chouteau,    Pierre,    26. 

Churches,  54,  55,  120. 

Cincinnati,  31. 

City  Hall,   68. 

City   Limits    Extended,    78. 

Civil  War,  Beginning  of, 
74. 

Clark,  Col.  George  Rogers, 
17;  illus.,  27;  Major, 
29 :  Expedition,  27,  28. 

Cleaver,   Charles,   70. 

Cleveland,  31,  32 ;  Pres. 
Appealed  to,  102. 

Climax  and  Epitome  of 
the  West,  17. 

Clybourne,    Archibald.    44. 

Coal,   21  :   Mines.   78. 

Cobweb  Castle,  36. 

College  of  Jesuits,  18. 

Colleges,    111. 

Columbus,   126. 

Company   of  the  West,   20. 

Congress,  49. 

Convent,   La  Rabida,  126. 

Convention,  Repub  1  i  c  a  n- 
National,  73  ;  River  and 
Harbor,  63. 

Cook  County,  10.  47:  Hos- 
pital, 114  :  Militia,  48. 

Copper    6,  19. 

Corn,  7. 

Corn  Island,  27. 

County  Detention  Hospital, 
114. 

Crafts,  Mr.,  43. 

Craze  for  Land,  53. 

Crerar,  John,  Library,  113. 

Cumberland  Gap,   32. 

Cumberland    River,    32. 

Danville,    45. 

D'Artagnette,  Pierre,  22, 
31. 

Daulac,  Adam.  5. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  74. 

Dayton,  31. 

Dearborn.  Gen'l  Henry, 
33  ;  Orders  fort  on  Chi- 
cago River,  33. 

De  Bellerive,  St.  Ange,  26. 

Debs,   Eugene  V..   102. 

De   Champlain,    Samuel,   2. 

Deer,    10:    Skins,   33. 

Delaware   river,   28. 

Delawares,  31. 

De  Makarty,  Chevalier,  23. 

De   Rocheblave,  M..   28. 

De  Saible,  Jean  Baptiste, 
14. 

Des  Moines  river,  7. 

De  Soto,   1. 


Desplaines  river,  9,  10.  11 
13,  14.  49. 

D'Estaing,  Admiral,  28. 

Destruction  of  Business 
Center  Completed,  88. 

DeTonty,     Henry.     12,    13, 

Detroit,  18,  25,  26.  32,  33. 

Development  of  railroads. 
11,  54,  55,  58,  61,  62, 
63,  64,  65. 

deVilliars,    Neyon,    26. 

D'Iberville,   17'. 

Dilg,   Carl,  10. 

Dinwiddie,    Gov.,    23. 

Dixon,  45. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  63. 
71,  112,  126. 

Down  the  St.  Lawrence 
into  the  Wilderness,  3. 

Drought  of  '71,  80. 

Dubuque.   32. 

Due  de  Chartres,  20. 

Du  Lhut,   16. 

Duluth,  30.   33. 

Dunning,   105. 

Durantage,  16. 

Dutch  of  New  York.  3. 

Educational  Institutions, 
67,  111. 

Edwards,   Gov.   Ninian.   43. 

England,   22.   24.   25.   29. 

English  Explores,  2  ;  Land 
League,  9. 

Ericson,   Leif.   126. 

Erie  Canal,   43. 

Ewen,   John   M.,  109. 

Falls  of   St.    Anthony,    15. 

Father  of  Waters.  18. 

Fine  Arts  Bldg.,  illus..  96. 

Fire  Dept.,  67,  79,  80  to 
93. 

Fires  Make  Clean  Sweep, 
90. 

Fire  on  South  Side,  88 ; 
Taught  its  Lesson.  93. 

First  Attack  by  Indians, 
39;  Plank  Road,  60; 
Presbyterian  Church,  55  ; 
Territorial  Legislature, 
42 :  Train  out  of  Chi- 
cago, 62:  White  Child 
born  in  Chicago,  36. 

Five   Nations.   13. 

Flag,  Cross  of  St.  George, 
24 ;  Lillies  of  France, 
24 :  Thirteen  Colonies, 
24. 

Flood  of  '49,   68. 

Fort  Chartres,  20,  22,  23, 
24,  25,  28,  31. 

Fort   Clark,    44. 

Fort  Crevecoeur,  12. 

Fort  Dearborn.  11.  17.  34, 
:'.!».  48,  and  the  War  of 
1812,  33,  34,  39;  Build- 


120 


THE   STORY  OF   CHICAGO   AND  NATIONAL    DEVELOPMENT. 


Ing    of,    34 :     Departure 
from,  40  ;  Site  of,  34. 

Fort   Duquesne,    24. 

Fort  Frontenac,  12,  13,  24. 

Fort.  Gage,  28. 

Fort  Greenville,  31. 

Fort    Maiden,    Canada,    34. 

Fort  Meigs,  31. 

Fort  Miami,  12,  16. 

Fort  Quatonon,  18,  22. 

Fort  I'itt,   24,   26. 

Fort    Ponchartrain,    18. 

Fort  St.  Louis.  13. 

Fort  Sumter,  74. 

Fort  Vincennes.   22. 

Fort    Wayne,    16.    17,    32, 

Foxes,  4,  6,  14,  17,  22,  33, 

Fox  river,  4,  7. 

France.  1,  6,  8.  9,  12,  14, 
17,  19,  25,  32. 

Frankfort,  Mich.,  11. 

FranMin,   126. 

French    Explorers,   2. 

French  in  the  old  North- 
west, 1  to  27 :  Explora- 
tion and  Settlements,  1 
to  27. 

Frink  &  Walker's  Stage 
Office,  55. 

Frontenac,   Count,   6,  13. 

Fur,  15,  19,  33,  35. 

Galena,   32,    63,   44. 

Galloway,  James,  44 ; 
Mary,  44. 

Garden  City  and  How  It 
Grew,  59. 

Garfleld  park,  126. 

Garibaldi,  126. 

Georgian  Bay,  4. 

Ghetto,   106,    110. 

Gibault,   Father,  28. 

Glenn  Harbor,  11. 

Goethe,  126. 

Goose   Island,   107. 

Grain,  21  ;  And  Good 
Roads,  60. 

Grand  river,  12,  13,  34. 

Grant  Park,  116;  Model 
of,  118,  126. 

Great    Lakes,    29,    32,    43, 

Great  Manitou,  14. 

Great  river,  3,  4.  6,  7. 

Green  Bay,   1,   4,  7,  8,   18, 

Griffin,   12,  13. 

Growth  of  the  Northwest, 
29. 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  13,  14,  15. 

Gunsaulus,  Rev.  F  W., 
121. 

Half-Moon,   3. 

Ilalsted  St.,  107. 

Harbor,   109. 

Harper,   Wm.   Rainey,   112. 

Harrison,  126. 

Harrodsburg,  27. 

Haymarket       Square,       47. 

Heald.   Capt.   40. 

Heights  of  Abraham,  3. 

Hennepin,    Father.    14,    15. 

Henry,  Patrick,  27. 

Heroes  of  the  Fire,  85. 

Historic  Home  of  the 
O'Leary's,  81. 

Hitt,   Colonel,   50. 

Ilolden,   Charles  C.   P., .  65. 

Home  for  Incurables  and 
Crippled  Children,  114. 

Hooke.   Lieut.   Moses,   33. 

Hospitals.  63  :  Cook  Coun- 
ty, 114  :  County  Deten- 
tion, 114. 

How    an    Indian    Skirmish 
Turned     the     Course     of 
History,   3. 
Huhbard.     Burdon     S.,     45, 

Hudson,   Henry.    3. 
Hudson   river,  3,  43. 
Hull.  Charles  .T.,  110. 
Hull,    Gen'l.    40. 
Hull  House,   110. 
Humboldt.    125. 
Huron  Indians,  1. 
Huron    lake.    4. 
Hurons.   3.  6.   11.  31. 
Ill    Winds    to    Kaskaskia 


Blows  Good  to  Chicago, 
64. 

Illini.  6,  7. 

Illinois,  18,  28,  29,  30,  31, 

Illinois  and  Michigan 
Canal.  49 ;  Begun,  56 ; 
Company,  45 :  Opened, 

Illinois  as  a  State  and  the 
part  Illinois  played  in 
the  Mexican  and  Civil 
Wars,  71,  74,  78. 

Illinois  Central  railroad, 
63,  65.  116  ;  Begun,  64. 

Illinois  County,  12. 

Illinois  French  and  the 
War  with  England,  22. 

Illinois    Indians,    6,    7,    9, 

Illinois,   Lake  of  the,   6. 

Illinois    river,    7,    35,    43. 

Illinois  tribes,  13. 

Illinois  village,  7. 

Illus — A  Confederate  Sol- 
dier, 76  :  Addams,  Jane, 
110:  A  Fire  Bucket,  66; 
A  French  Voyaguer,  16  ; 
Armour  Packing  Plant, 
from  Balloon,  108 ;  At- 
tempt of  Prisoners  to 
Escape  from  Camp  Dou- 
glas, 75 ;  Beaubien, 
Alex.,  50  ;  Beaubien, 
Jean  Baptiste,  42  ;  Beau- 
bien, Mark.  43 ;  Black 
Hawk,  42  :  Breese,  Judge 
Sidney,  64 :  Bremner, 
Capt.  David  P.,  74; 
Cabin  on  Lee's  Place, 
36;  Chicago  as  it  Prob- 
ably Looked  when  seen, 
by  St.  Cosme,  18;  Chi- 
cago  in  1831.  45;  Chi- 
cago in  1853,  66  ;  Clark, 
Gen'l  Geo.  E.  Rogers, 
27 ;  Clybourne,  Mrs. 
Mary  Galloway,  43 ; 
Court  of  Honor,  98 ; 
Cross  of  St.  George,  24  ; 
Deerlng  Harvester 
Works,  105 ;  Douglas, 
Stephen  A.,  71  ;  Ells- 
worth, Lieut.  Elmer,  74  ; 
Entrance  Hall.  Chicago 
Historical  Society  Bldg., 
97 ;  Field  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  119 ; 
First  Cook  County 
Courthouse,  56 ;  First 
Government  House  of 
Tipper  Louisiana,  Built 
at  St.  Louis  (1776),  20; 
Fort  Dearborn,  34 ; 
Fort  Dearborn  Massacre 
Monument,  41  ;  Fort 
Payne  at  Naperville, 
1832,  45 :  French  Sol- 
dier in  Illinois,  Early 
Eighteenth  Century.  15 ; 
Frink  &  WTalker's  Stage- 
coach Office,  52 ;  Front 
Elevation  of  the  Pro- 
posed John  Crorar  Li- 
brary Building,  118 ; 
Gale,  Edwin  O.,  G8 ; 
Golden  Door  to  the 
Transportation  Bldg., 
96 :  Harper,  William 
Rainey,  112 ;  Heart  of 
Chicago  after  the  Fire, 
89 ;  House  Now  Stand- 
ing at  137  DeKoven  St., 
81  :  Indian  Chief,  19 ; 
Jenney,  W.  L.  B.,  94 ; 
Joliet.  Louis,  2:  Joliet 
and  Marquette  Starting 
on  Voyage  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 2  :  Kaskaskia  in 
1901.  12;  Kerfoot  Block, 
87:  Kinzie,  John.  40: 
Kinzie,  Juliette,  49:  La- 
clede,  Pierre,  26 ;  Lake 
Front  Before  the  Fire. 
77 :  Lamp  Found  in 
O'Leary's  Barn.  78 ; 
Lagalle,  8:  LaSalle's 
Lieutenant  Henri  De 


Tonty,  11 ;  Lilies  of 
France,  24 ;  Lincoln, 
Abraham,  71  ;  Lincoln 
House  at  Springfield, 
111.,  76;  Lumbet  Dis- 
trict, 104  ;  Main  Portico 
of  Fine  Arts  Bldg.,  96; 
Mason-Mayor  Rosw  ell 
B.,  85 ;  Medill,  Joseph, 
94;  Mulligan,  Co.,  74; 
Musham,  Fire  Chief 
Wm.,  79 ;  New  York 
Life  Bldg.  in  course  of 
Construction,  95 ;  Nico- 
let  among  the  Winne- 
bagoes,  4  :  Northern  Part 
of  the  Site  of  Grant 
Park  in  1868,  116; 
Ogden  Wm.  B.,  58;  Old 
Galena  Depot,  62;  Old 
Stagecoach  Tavern,  65 ; 
Pere  Marquette,  3 ;  Pio- 
neer Engine,  62 ;  Pow- 
der Magazine  of  Stone 
at  Fort  Chartres,  Built 
About  1750,  21  ;  Public 
Square  Before  the  Fire, 
82;  Pullman,  Geo.  M., 
68;  Ruins  of  Field  & 
Leiter  Bldg.,  87  ;  •  Rum- 
sey  School,  1844,  67 ; 
Rush  St.  Bridge  Today, 
63 ;  Sauganash  House, 
46  ;  Scene  in  the  Union 
Stock  Yards,  109 ;  Sec- 
ond Tribune  Bldg.,  97  ; 
Shabona,  51  ;  Sheridan, 
Gen.  P.  H.,  85:  South 
Clark  St.  in  1857,  65; 
Starved  Rock,  7 :  Statue 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  in 
Lincoln  Park,  Chicago, 
72 :  Sweenle,  Ex-Fire 
Chief,  Dennis  J.,  79; 
Sweet.  Gen.  Benj.  J., 
74 ;  The  Dearborn  St. 
Drawbridge  (1835),  54; 
The  Griffin.  13 ;  The 
Lincoln  Cabin.  44 :  The 
Long  John  Fire  Engine, 
68:  The  Old  Kinzie 
House,  Chicago,  37 ; 
The  Pierre  M  e  n  a  r  d 
House  at  Kaskaskia,  25  ; 
The  Quadriga  on  the 
Peristyle,  99  :  The  Wig- 
wam where  Lincoln  was 
Nominated.  73 :  Thir- 
teen Colonies,  24  ;  Ves- 
tisres  of  the  Canal  Port, 
61 ;  Wa-Pa-Ke-Sek.  14 ; 
WTayne,  Gen'l  Anthony, 
28 ;  Wells,  Capt.  Wm., 
35 ;  Wentworth,  John 
L.,  59:  Whistler,  Lieut. 
WTm.,  35;  Wolf  Point, 
1832,  45. 

Indiana,  14,  18,  28,  30.  32. 

Indians  and  Their  Stories, 
10,  31,  37:  Surveyed 
the  Burlington,  11. 

Iowa,  71. 

Iron   Ore,   21. 

Iroquols,  3.  4,  5,  6,  8,  13, 
14.  24,  26. 

Jackson  and  the  Bank- 
ing System,  56. 

Jacques,  7. 

Jamestown.    Va.,    2. 

Jefferson,    President,    33. 

Joliet,  4,  7,  11.  13,  19; 
Louis,  2,  6,  126. 

Jonett,  John,  roueh  wed- 
ding .lourney,  36. 

Judd,   Norman   B..   72. 

Kankakee    river,     12,     35. 

Kaskaskia.  7.  9.  11.  13, 
17.  19.  21,  27.  28,  29,  32. 

Kellogg.  Mr..  44. 

Kentucky.    27.    30.    31,    32. 

Kerfoot,   Wm.   D..  92. 

Kickapoos.   6.   13.  34. 

Kilaticas.  13. 

Kinzie.  John.  34.  35.  43; 
death,  46. 


Kinzie.  Robt.  46,  52. 
Kosciusko,   126. 
La    Barre,    15. 
Labrador,   13. 
La  Chine  Rapids.  7. 
Laclede,   Pierre,   26. 
Lafayette,   28. 
La  Framboise,   46. 
Lake  Champlain,  3,  26. 
Lake    Erie,    3,    13,    18,    33. 
Lake   George,    3. 
Lake  Huron,  33. 
Lake   Michigan,   8.   12,   13. 
17,    18,    32,    33,    34,    43 
Lake  Nipissing,   1,  4. 
Lake  of   the   Illinois,    1.   7. 

13,  18. 

Lake   of  the  Mitchlgamias. 

18. 

Lake  Ontario,  3,  12,  24. 
Lake   Superior,   19,   26.   31 
Lake  Shore  railroad,  64. 
Le  Mai.   34. 
La  Motte,  M.,  21. 
LaPointe     du     St.     Esnrlt 

(the   point    of    the    Holy 

Ghost),  5. 
La  Pointe,  6. 
La  Salle,  2,  7,  11,  12,  1.1 

14,  15,   16,   17,   24,   126. 
Last    Council    of    the    In- 
dians  of    Chicago,    50. 

Last  Wrar  Dance  in  Chi- 
cago. 51. 

Law,  John,  20. 

Lead,  19,  21  ;  Mines,  22 
32.  43. 

Le   Brlse,    Francoise,   19. 

Lee,  Chas.,   36. 

Lee's  Place  Cabin,  9. 

Lexington,  27,  36. 

Libraries — Chicago  His- 
torical Societv.  114: 
Crerar,  113.  118;  New- 
berry,  113:  Public.  11.1  : 
Ryerson,  114. 

Lighthouse.  63. 

Lincoln,  Abe.  44.  48  55 
63  ;  Illus..  71  :  Assassi^a- 
tion  of,  76 :  Linc-ln- 
Douglas  Debate.  71  • 
Family,  44 :  National 
Figure,  71.  125:  Nomi- 
nated for  the  Presl 
dency,  73. 

Linne.    126. 

Lockport,   111.,   109. 

Logan,  John  A..   120. 

Long  Sault   or  Soo,  5. 

Louisburg,  24. 

Louisiana,    12,   14,  32. 

Louisiana    Purchase,    32. 

Louisville,   27. 

Ludington.  Mich..  11. 

Lumber,  32 ;  Camps,  4 : 
yard.  49. 

Mackinac,    16.    33. 

Mackinac  Fur  Co..  33. 

Mackinac   row-boat.   34. 

Madeleine  Island,  6. 

Madison  Street,  8-9. 

Maize,   18. 

Manitou    Islands.    11.   34. 

Maps — Burned  District  of 
Chicago.  83 :  Chicago  In 
1812,  39  :  Chicago  Ploln. 
10 :  Chlcaeo  Portage 
and  Location  of  Mar- 
quette's  cabin.  9 :  Ch1- 
cago's  Transportation 
lines  in  1850.  60:  Dia- 
gram of  Ground  Occu- 
pied by  Camn  Douerlas. 
75 ;  French  Settlements 
In  Illinois,  22:  Grant 
Park  used  as  a  Pasis 
of  Study.  117:  Ground 
Plan  of  Fort  Chartres. 
26  :  Marouette's.  6  :  The 
Fire  of  Saturday  night, 
Oct.  7th.  80. 

Marietta.   31. 

Marine  Hospital.  63. 

Marine    League,    9. 

Marquette.    4,    6.    7.    8,    9, 


121 


THE  STORY  OF  CHICAGO  AND  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

10,  11.    IS.    33  :    (loath,        14.  27,  28,  32.  14,  22,  32.  Tamaroas,  16. 

11,  126.                                   ojihwas,  6,  31.  i;»<k  river,  .•',."..  45,  49:  val-  Taylor,  Graham,   111. 
Marseilles.    44.                             o'kaw  river,  is.   1!>.  23.  ley,  17.  Tecumseh.  :{<». 
Marten,    :::!.                                  old  Mackinac.  <>,  11.  Hoot.  John  \V..  !I7.                    Temple  Building.  55. 
Martineaii.    Harriet.  53.          Ontario,  lake,  4.  Itosehill   Cemetery.   105.          Tennessee,    '27,    32;     river, 
Martinique.    21.                           Ordinance  of  1887,  30.  Uuinsey  School,  67.  32. 

Mascniitins.    -4.    H>.                   Osweuo.   X.   Y..  24.  Ityerson  Library,  114.  Texas.   15. 
Mason,    Uoswell    I1...   »',4.           Ottawa.  5.  4S;    river,  4,  14.  Sacs,    4,    6.    14,    17,    22,    41.   The    Conqueror,    the    Colo- 
Mason,    Mayor    It.    B.,    85.    Ottawas,  G,  11,  31.  Ste.  Anne  de  Fort  Chartres,       nizer     and     the     Adven- 
Massacre,  The.  40.                     Otter,   33.                                           20.  hirer.  2. 
Maume   river,   16.                     ouilmette.  34.  St.   Augustine.  Fla.,  1.            The    Division    of    the    New 
McCormlck    Evening   Tech-   Paget,  M.,   21.  St.     Clair,     General,     31;       World,  1. 

nieal   School,  104.  Palmer,  Mrs.   Potter.  98.  river,  26.  The  Fair  in  Embryo,  99. 

McKinley,   126.  Panic  of  1837,  57  ;  of  1873,  St.  Cosme,  14,  16.  "The  French  Claim."  (i. 

Medill,  Joseph,  71,  92,  93  ;       94  ;  Results  of,  58.  St.   Francis,   river,  21.  The  Home  Guard,  87. 

illustration,    94.  Paris,  14  :  Exposition  Fur-  Ste.  Genevieve,  26.  "The    Illinois,"   49. 

Menard.    Pere   Rene,   5.  nished  Model,  96.  St.  Gaudens,  126.  The  Pathfinders,  1. 

Mcnard,  Father,  6.  Parkman,  3,  7  ;  Francis,  9,  St.   Ignace,   6  ;    Mission,   6  ;  The   Sands,   88. 

.Men      of      the  •   Western  Park  Systems,  77.  College    and    Church    of  Thirty-fifth        street,        8: 

Sea,"  1.  Passing    of    the    Red    Man,        Holy   Family,    113.  bridge,   10. 

Menominee,   4.  50.  St.  Joseph,  18,  33,  34,  44  ;   Thirty  Fires  in  One  Week. 

Messippi,   6.  Patten,  James  A.,  113.  Portage,  14 ;  river.  12.  80. 

Mexican  War,  65.  Penn,  WTm.,  14.  St.    Lawrence,    river,    1,    2,   Thirty  Wars,  4. 

Miami   village.    16.  Pennsylvania,  30.  3,  4,  7,  14,  25,  30.  Three  Rivers,  4. 

Miamis,     6,     14,     17,     31  ;   Peopling   of   Northern    Illi-  St.   Louis,  17,  26,  32.  Ticonderoga,  3. 

tribes,  13.  nois,  43.  St.  Mary's  Catholic  Church,  Tod.  Col.  John,  27,  28,  29. 

Michigan,    6,    28,    30.    33;   Peoria,     111.,    12,    19,    32;       55.  Tonty,  17. 

Ave..    65.    107;   Cent.    R.        Lake,   12,  45.  St.   Philip,  21.  Topenebee,  36. 

R.,   64  ;   City,   44  ;    Lake,   Peorias,   16.  St.  Francis  Xavier  mission,  Tracy,  sailing  schooner,  33. 

1,  4.  Pepikakias,    13.  5,  11.  Transportation  in  the  city, 

Michilimackinac,  6,  12,  18,   Pettell,  34.  Saloon  Building,  55.  70. 

33 :   Strait  of,  1.                  Philadelphia,  30.  Salt,  32.  Treaty  Council,  50. 
Milwaukee,  30,  35,  62.            Philanthropic  Associations,  San  Domingo,  21.                     Treaty  of  Greenville,  16. 
Mines,  15.                                        110.  Sandusky,  44.  Tree  Planting,  117. 
A  innesota,  71.                           Piankeshas,  13.  Sangamon  river,  44.  Tremont  House,  53.  55.  69. 
Mississippi.    4,    6.    7,    32;  Pierre,  7.  Sante  Fe,  19.                             Tribune  Building,  52;  corn- 
Bubble.   20 ;   River,   2,   4,   Pine  Forests,  4.  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  4,   6,  18,       pany,  92. 

12,  13.    14,    17.    25,    28,  Pioneer  Engine,  62.  26.  62.  Trinity  river,  Texas,  16. 
I'll.    30.    33  ;    flood,    64  ;   Pittsburg,  28,  31.  Sauganash   House,   46  ;    Its  Trolley  ride,  104. 

valley.    12.  Plans  for  the  Improvement       Landlord,  46.  Tuscaroras    of     the     Caro- 

M:  souri.   1!),  32.  of  Chicago,   70.  Scammon,  J.  Y.,  61.  Unas.  3,   14. 

tchlgamlas,    16.  Pointe  de  Saible,  Jean  Bap-  Schiller,   126.  Tuley.  Murray  F.,  65. 

:io!.ile.    17.   21.  tiste,  35.  School    Commissioners.    52.  Twenty-second  street,  9,10. 

M')>awks,    3.  Point  St.  Ignace,  11.  Schools.  Haven,  67:  Jones,  Tyanockee,  10. 

M<  liegan.  12.  13.  Pontiac,  26,  27;  chief,  32;        67;  Land,  52:  Parochial   Union    Park,    126. 

Mo->a  que  at   Versailles,   6.        helped    to   bring    on    the       and  Private,  111  ;  Public,  Universities,    111;    of   Chi- 
M  'iiroe,  Harriet,  99;  Pres.,        Revolution,  27.  Ill;  Rumsey,  67;  Scam-       cago,  112;  Northwestern, 

4::.  Pork,  35.  mon,  67.  113. 

Montcalm,  24.  Portage  in  Chicagou,  13.  Scioto  river,  16.  Utica,  7,  13. 

Montreal,    3,    4.    5,    6,    14,  Portage  river,  7.  Scott,  General,  48,  49.  Valley   of   the    Illinois,    7. 

15.    18,    19,    24,    25,    32,   Postofflce,  first,  47.  Seminaries.   111.  Vandalia,  45. 

:>:;  :  fort  of.  7.  Pottawatomie     Indians.     6.  Senecas,  26.  Van  Osdel.   Mr.,   54. 

"onuments,   125.  9,  11,  12,  14,  17,  32,  34,  Seward,  Wm.  H.,  72.  Vermont,  3. 

"lower.   Capt.    S.,   65.  Prairie  du  Chien,  4,  7,  19,  Sewers,  69.  Victoria,  126. 

Mud   Lake,   13,  39;   region.       33,  32.  Shabona,  50.  Vincennes,  17;  Indiana,  18, 

nlligan.   Col.,   75.  Princess  Nelly  and  the  S51-  Shakespere,  12G.  Virgin,  6. 

Municipal  Art  League,  125.       verman,  34,  38.  Shawanoes,  13,  26.  Virginia,   23,  27,  29,  30. 

Naperville,   45.  Prisoners    at    Camp    Doug-  Shawneetown,  45.  Wabash    River,   18. 

:  anoleon,  32.  las,  75.  Sheridan,    General,    to    the  Walcott,   Dr.   Alex.,  43. 

Natchez.    26;    Indians,    15-  Proclamation      of      French       Rescue,  89.  War     Declared     on     Great 

18,    22.  Sovereignty,  1671,  6.  Signal  of  Peace,  126.  Britain,   40. 

Newberry   Library,  113.          Progress    Stopped  by   Civil  Sioux,  6,  8,  15  ;  Indians,  6.  Washburn,   Wis.,   5. 

New   England,  30.  War.  71.  Six   Nations,  14.  Washington,    Geo..    23,    30, 

New   France.   2,   5,   14,   15.   Public  Library,  113.  Slavery,  30,  65.  Water-mill,   21,  32  ;  power, 

New  Orleans,   25,  26.  Pullman,   Geo.  M.,   40,   70  ;  Sleeping  Bear  Point,  11.  109  ;  supply,  21,  70. 

New  York.  3,  8,  13,  14,  30,       strike,  101.  Sleepy  Bear  Point,  34.  Waterways.  3,  6,  9,  13.  4:!. 

.->!.'.   (51,  69.  Quebec,    2,    3,    4.    24,    25.  Smith,  George,  59.  52.  02,  79. 

Niagara.   12,  26.  Railroad,  60,  111.  Cent.  64,  South  Bend,  Ind.,  12.  Waubun,  36. 

Ni<  olet.  Jean,  1.  6  ;  among       Lake    Shore,    64,    Mich.  St.  Carolina,  74.  Wayne,  Gen.  Anthony.  :'.:'.  : 

Barons    on    Lake    Nipis-       Cent.    64,    Rock    Island,  South  Carolina,   74.  defeats   the    Indians,    31. 

sing,  4  ;  at  the  nation  of       64.  South  Sea,  4.  Weas,  13,  31. 

the     Beavers     on     Lake  Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  1.  South     Water    Street,     the  Wells,      Capt.      Wm.,      40 ; 

Huron,  4  ;  at  the  Ojibwa  Renault.      Philip     Frances,        Business  Center.  52.  Capt.  E.,  65. 

village   at   the   Falls,   4;        20,  21.  22.  Spanish  Explorers.  2.  Wentworth.      Elijah,      46; 


at  the  retreats  of  the  Ot-  Republican    National    Con-   Springfield,   71.                              Hon.  John  L.,  59,  62. 

ia was      on      the      Mani-  vention.  7:;.                            Starved  Rock,  7.                       West   Indies.  25. 

toulins,  4  :  at  the  retreat  Republican     Party     Organ-  State  Bank  Building.  55.        "What   Twenty-one   Heroes 

of  the  Pottawatomies  on  ized.  71.                                   Stagecoach  Days,  55.                    Did."  5. 

the     islands     outside     of  Resources    of    Illinois    and  State  Banks,   56.                       Wheeling.   W.   Va.,   27. 

Green   Bay,   4.  of  the  West  and   North-   Streets,  Care  of.  tiO.                Whistler,  Capt.,  33  ;  Lieut. 

ka.   12.  west,  98.                                 Stillman,  Major,  48.                     Wm..  33. 

North  Carolina.   13,  14.  Reuter,  126.                                Stockyards,    9,    10,    70-77,  Wigwam,  73. 

North  Channel,  4.  Reynolds.   Gov.,  47.                      110.                                           Winnelmgo.  lake,  7. 

North  Channel,  4.  Richelieu   river,   3.                   Stone    from    the    Channel,   Winnebagoes,   4;    of   Green 

North   Evanston.    106.  Ribordi.   Father.   13.                     109.                                               Bay.   "Men  of  the  West 

Northwestern       University,  River  and   Harbor  Conven-  Stone  Quarries.  78.                      ern  Sea,"  4. 

113.  tion,   63.                                  Stony  Island,  8.                        Winnemeg,  36 ;  Chief.  40. 

Northwest  Territory.  31.  Riverside,    10,    11  ;    Lyons  Strikes,      Pres.     Cleveland,   Wisconsin,  14,  28.  30,   71  : 

Notre     Dame    de    Chicago,  ford,  11.                                       102;   Debs,   102;    Failed,        Marine    and    Fire    Insur- 
Robinson,   Alex..  47.                     103  :  Pullman,  101.                  ance  Company.  59  :  river. 

Oak   Point,   6.  Rockefeller,  J.  D.,  112.           Summit,    10,    11  ;    Illinois,   Wolf,  33 :  Point,  40. 

Oakwoods  Cemetery,  76.  Rockies.  13.                                      109.                                           World's   Fair.  96. 

Oftden,  Wm.  B.,  52.  53,  58,  Rock  Island,  49;    railroad,  Superior,  Lake,  4.  6,  8.         Yerkes,  Chas.    T.,   112. 

59.  r,o,  112.  »i4.                                             Sweenie.  D.  .7..  68.                   Yorktown,   28. 

Ohio,  8,  14,  28,  30;  river,  Rock   of   St.    Louis,    7,    13,   Taft,    Lorado,    125.                 Zinc,    21. 

122 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


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